gems, jade, nephrite, Xinjiang, Chinese jade, Khotan, balas ruby, spinel, Kuh-i-Lal, Tajikistan.12

Stoliczka reports firsthand observations on the occurrence of nephrite in the Karakash Valley on the southern border of Eastern Turkestan, made during the 1873 Yarkand Mission. He describes jade in the Kunlun region south of Khotan, including transported boulders and primary occurrences in the mountains, and records evidence of former workings from which the material had been extracted for the Chinese market. His observations provide direct geological evidence for the source of Khotan nephrite and help distinguish primary mountain deposits from the river-derived jade historically collected in the region. Elsewhere in the volume, Captain Henry Trotter records spinel on p. 277 in connection with the mineral resources of the mission’s route. The report is an important firsthand source for the geology, occurrence, and nineteenth-century exploitation of Central Asian jade and for contemporary observations on other gemstones of the region.