gems, Ceylon, Sri Lanka, gem minerals, natural history

Hensoldt recounts observations made during two years of travel in Ceylon beginning in 1875, with particular attention to natural history, geology, religion, and the island’s gem deposits. He describes the central highlands as composed chiefly of ancient metamorphic rocks, including garnetiferous gneiss, and attributes the alluvial gem deposits to weathering of these rocks and subsequent transport by mountain streams. He identifies the Kalu Ganga and Ratnapura as the center of the native gem trade and describes the buried “gem gravel,” from which rubies, sapphires, topazes, cat’s-eyes, garnets, and cinnamon-stones were recovered; he states that diamond was unknown from the island. Hensoldt also provides an eyewitness description of the Temple of the Tooth at Kandy, including reliquaries decorated with large pearls, uncut rubies, sapphires and emeralds, and an enormous hollowed star sapphire said to have been found near Adam’s Peak. He discusses the contemporary gem trade and demand among Indian princes and records the reopening of the Puttalam pearl fishery, where more than 7,000 baskets of oysters were landed during a six-week season.