d leaf sent from Yunnan gilds the gods of Thibet and the
temples and pagodas of Indo-China. No caravan returns to Burma from
Western China whose spare silver has not been changed into gold leaf. In
the Arracan Temple in Mandalay, as in the Shway-dagon Pagoda in Rangoon,
you see the gold leaf that Yunnan produces, and in the future will
produce in infinitely greater quantities.

Gold comes chiefly from the mines of Talang, eighteen days journey by
land S.W. from Yunnan City, on the confines of the district which
produces the famous Puerh tea. The yield must be a rich one despite the
ineffective appliances that are employed in its extraction. Gold has
always been abundant in this province; at the time of Marco Polo's visit
it was so abundant that its value in relation to silver was only as one
to six.

When gold is worth in Shanghai 35 times its weight in silver, it may be
bought in Yunnan City or Talifu for from 25 to 27.5 times its weight in
silver, and in quantities up to hundreds of ounces. To remit silver by
telegraphic transfer from Shanghai or Hong Kong to Yunnan city costs six
per cent., and either of the two leading banks in the city will
negotiate the transfer from their agents at the seaports of any amount
up to 10,000 ounces of silver in a single transaction. The gold can
always be readily sold in Shanghai or Hong Kong, and the only risk is in
the carriage of the gold from the inland city to the seaport. So far as
I could learn, no gold thus sent has gone astray. It is carried overland
by the fastest trade route--that through Mungtze to Laokai--and thence
by a boat down stream to Hanoi in Tonquin, from which port it is sent by
registered post to Saigon and Hong Kong. Here then is a venture open to
all, with excitement sufficient for the most _blase_ speculator. Ample
profits are made by the dealer. For instance, a large quantity of gold
was purchased in Yunnan city on the 21st January, 1894, at 23.2, its
value in Shanghai on the same date being 30.9; but on the date that the
gold arrived in Shanghai its value had risen to 35, at which price it
was sold. At the time of my visit gold was 25.5 to 27 in Yunnan, and 35
in Shanghai, and I have since learnt that, while gold has become cheaper
in the province, it has become dearer at the seaport.

The gold is brought to the buyer in the form of jewellery of really
exquisite workmanship, of rings and bracelets, earrings and head
ornaments, of those tiny images worn b