YUII. CHIN. Jade, nephrite.
Yashm, . . . . Pctis. I Sutash, . . . . TURK.
This mineral is found in the long narrow valley of the Ooroo or Oru, a tributary of the Ningthe or Kyendwen, some 50 or GO miles west of Mogoung. It is dug up by the Shan and Kakhyen races. It is found embedded in yellow clay, It is largely purchased by the Chinese in Burma for exportation to China, where it fetchea an extravagant price, and is manufactured into cups, bracelets, et,c. It is of the yuli stone that the Chinese form their waved emblem of longevity, specimens of which sometimes bring 100 dollars. Respectable Chinese at Amarapura represent this trade as amounting to from six to ten lakhs of tikals per annual. This is probably exaggerated. It is met with also in Eung-tien-fit (Siting king), Lien-chau-ftt (Canton), in Shan-tung, near Khoten, Karakash, Yarkand, and other places in Turkestan and Mongolia, in tho rivers amongst the Siansk mountains, to the S.W. of Lake Baikal, in E. Siberia, and other places in Centml Asia ; also in New Zealand, Polynesia, and the United States. It is of various colours, white, blue.
yellow, and green, and the milk-white and light green varieties are the most valued. Its hard ness, weight, sonoriety. and peculiar sombre tint are the points on which the Chinese found their estimate of its value. It consists chemically of the silicates of magnesia and alumina, with varying quantities of chromium, and perhaps other metals, according to the tint of the stone. Philosophers and physicians have ascribed all sorts of properties to this mineral, which, lio3v ever, as a medicinal substance for any purposes of pharmacy, can have no other effect than so much steatite or soapstone. The Chinese suppose it to posses.s humane, just, intelligent, brave, and pure qualities, presumed to be con veyed to the wmrer. Those who wear it are said to be relieved front the claims of gravitation. Chinese jade articles have been dug up in Europe in connection with very aucient rernains.—Smith ; Porter, M.D. ; Nat. IRstory of Chinn ; Yule's Embassy. p. 147.