gems, Burma, Myanmar

A comprehensive two-volume official gazetteer of British Burma compiled under the authority of the colonial government, with Horace Ralph Spearman responsible for its preparation. Volume 1 provides a general history and description of the country, including geography, population, administration, commerce, agriculture, natural resources and social conditions; Volume 2 is arranged as a geographical gazetteer of towns, villages, districts and other localities. For gemological and mineralogical research, the work is useful for references to local mineral resources, mining and trade within nineteenth-century Burma, although it predates the British annexation of Upper Burma and therefore does not provide the later detailed treatment of Mogok and other Upper Burmese gem districts. It is an important primary source for the geography, economy and natural resources of British-controlled Burma in the late nineteenth century.