And the sparkling stars began to shine,
Like scatter’d gems in the diamond mine.
The diamond is chiefly found in the provinces of Golconda and Visiapour,
and also in that of Bengal. Raolconda, in Visiapour, and Gandicotta, are
famed for their mines, as is Coulour in Golconda. The diamond is
generally found in the narrow crevices of the rocks, loose, and never
adherent to the fixed stratum. The miners, with long iron rods, which
have hooks at the ends, pick out the contents of the fissures, and wash
them in tubs, in order to extricate the diamonds. In Coulour they dig on
a large plain, to the depth of ten or fourteen feet; forty thousand
persons are employed; the men to dig, and the women and children to
carry the earth to the places where it is deposited till the search is
made.[241]
[241] A note to the “Ocean Cavern.”
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