The Rarest And Most Esteemed Varieties Are The White Speckled With Red And The Green Veined With Gold." (I. 395.) The Jade Of Khotan Appears To Be First Mentioned By Chinese Authors In The Time Of The Han Dynasty Under Wu-Ti (B.C. 140-86).

In A.D. 541 an image of Buddha sculptured in Jade was sent as an offering from Khotan; and in 632 the process of fishing for the material in the rivers of Khotan, as practised down to modern times, is mentioned.

The importation of Jade or Yue from this quarter probably gave the name of Kia-yue Kwan or "Jade Gate" to the fortified Pass looking in this direction on the extreme N. W. of China Proper, between Shachau and Suhchau. Since the detachment from China the Jade industry has ceased, the Musulmans having no taste for that kind of virtu. (H. de la V. de Khotan, 2, 17, 23; also see J. R. G. S. XXXVI. 165, and Cathay, 130, 564; Ritter, II. 213; Shaw's High Tartary, pp. 98, 473.)

[On the 11th January, 1895, Dr. Sven Hedin visited one of the chief places where Jade is to be found. It is to the north-east of Khotan, in the old bed of the Yurun Kash. The bed of the river is divided into claims like gold-fields; the workmen are Chinese for the greater part, some few are Musulmans.

Grenard (II. pp. 186-187) says that the finest Jade comes from the high Karakash (black Jade) River and Yurungkash (white Jade); the Jade River is called Su-tash.

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