DIAMOND LOCALITIES.
The diamond is widely dispersed over the earth, and undoubtedly occurs
in countries where its existence is not now suspected. The difficulty
of detection has restricted its geographical area in history, yet
enough is known to regard its deposition as almost universal, or at
least quite as frequent as that of gold. In some countries the deposits
are very limited, while in others, like those of Africa, Brazil, and
India, they stretch away over immense distances.
We will proceed to give brief descriptions of the well-known diamond
districts, and mention others but little known to commerce or the
mineralogists. For more extended accounts of the historical mines we
must refer the reader to the works of the authors quoted in our text.
We will commence with those of Asia.
The diamond fields in India are very extensive, and occur everywhere
among the hills of the great range that extends from Cape Comorin
through the whole of Bengal for a distance of several hundred miles and
with an average breadth of fifty miles.
How long these mines have been known to man must always remain a matter
of conjecture; but it is nevertheless certain that the famous mines
have been discovered within the past thousand years, and probably a
much less period of time. It is stated that many of the gem districts
along this range have not been explored carefully, and that the
kingdoms of Golconda and Visapour alone have supplied most of the gems
known in India. And it is also related that none of these localities
have been scientifically mined or surveyed with a view to thorough
development.
The most ancient of the diamond mines in India are supposed to be those
of Soumelpour, near the river Gonet, a tributary of the Ganges; but the
celebrated mines of Golconda and Raolconda have been known only since
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The richest mine of India, and the most extraordinary of any yet
discovered in the world, is that known by the name of Gani, or Couleur.
It is situated under a plain at the foot of a mountain about seven
days’ journey west of Golconda, and was discovered by accident about
the middle of the sixteenth century.
A native digging the earth to sow millet threw up a bright, clear
crystal of twenty-five karats. It was soon recognized to be a diamond,
and crowds of Hindoos flocked to the fields to reap the most wonderful
harvest of gems yet known. A vast number of large gems were obtained,
and among them the Great Mogul, which weighed in its rough condition
seven hundred and ninety-three karats. The gems of this mine were
remarkable for their large size, but they were not of the clearest and
purest water, the color and lustre of the stone seeming to partake of
the quality of the earth composing the matrix.
This idea, which prevails among the miners in other gem districts in
India and also in other countries, lends support to the belief that
the diamonds were formed in the strata of gravel where they are now
found, and not in the hard crystalline rocks and afterwards set free by
disintegration.
The matrix of these mines, as well as of all the others in different
parts of the world, is essentially the same; and consists of rolled or
broken masses of quartz, mixed or united with sand or earth impregnated
with a ferruginous oxide. Amongst this conglomerate, or immediately
below it, mixed with clay, the diamonds are found, and generally
unattached to any substance.
The earliest and best accounts of the mines of Golconda are to be
found in the narrative of Tavernier, who visited them in the middle
of the seventeenth century. At this time they were in prosperous
condition and furnished occupation to many thousand men. There were
but four mines then worked in Hindostan, and more than sixty thousand
miners were employed at the mine of Gani, or Couleur, alone. About
thirty years after the last visit of Tavernier, the Earl Marshal of
England, who had previously examined the diamond mines on the coast
of Coromandel, visited those in Bengal. He found that diamond mines
occurred everywhere along the slope of the hills extending through the
country; but that very few of them were worked, and that nearly all of
the diamonds then supplied to commerce were obtained from the kingdoms
of Golconda and Visapour. He gives descriptions of twenty-three mines
in Golconda and fifteen in Visapour.
The most famous of these at that time was called Currure, and was
worked by the king for his own use. Several very large gems are said
to have been found at this locality. It is related that a Portuguese
gentleman from Goa, having received permission to explore a part of
this mine, had the good fortune to discover a diamond of two hundred
and six karats, which so overjoyed him that he erected a large stone
over the spot with an inscription in Hindoo commemorative of the event.
Near this place there was another famous mine which yielded stones
of fine form and water, occurring in black earth, which is regarded
in India as a singular formation. In all the mines of Visapour the
diamonds are found in red and yellow earth, and this is generally the
color of the matrix elsewhere.
William Methold visited the mines of Golconda at a later period, and
relates that at that time they gave employment to about thirty thousand
laborers. The means for exploration were then exceedingly simple,
and no mechanical contrivances were adopted for excavating the pits
or bailing out the water. Shafts were rudely sunk in the earth to the
depth of sixty or seventy feet, and the cascalho found at even that
depth. It appeared to be reddish, mixed with white and yellow chalk,
and was rich in diamonds. Rarely, stones of one hundred and twenty to
two hundred karats were found, while those of ten to fifteen karats
were quite abundant; but by far the greater number were so minute that
it required from eight to twenty of them to weigh a karat.
Within the present century Dr. Buchanan and Mr. Voysey visited the
mines of India, and have left interesting and accurate descriptions of
their examinations and observations.
The famous mine of Pannah was examined in 1813, and found to be
situated in a table-land of great extent a thousand feet or more above
the Gangetic plain. The whole plain, wherever the gravelly formation
appeared, afforded diamonds at various depths ranging from six feet
to twenty-four. Many mines were worked in beds or borders of rivers
because they were easy of access, and the lazy natives lacked the
ability and means to explore the adjacent plains, which abounded in
diamonds, but were destitute of the water required for washing the
gravel.
The effect of the Brazilian discovery and its yield of several tons of
diamonds was severely felt in Hindostan, and many of its mines were
stopped in consequence. Yet there is abundant virgin territory left in
India for future successful exploration, if conducted scientifically
and with ample means.
The natives, with their rude methods of mining, generally ceased
operations when the deposit required the removal of twenty-four feet of
superincumbent soil. Hindoo labor, also, though apparently very cheap,
is in reality costly when we come to compare their slow and feeble
results to the efforts of well organized and conducted operations.
Hence the diamond has always been a costly gem in Hindostan, and it is
worth more in that country at the present time than in Europe.
Concerning the widespread idea of the reproduction of diamonds in India
we will make only a brief allusion at the present time.
This theory does not seem to be of a very recent date, for the
Portuguese traveller Garcias, who had been physician to the Viceroy at
Goa in the early part of the sixteenth century, and who visited the
mines, has left in his treatise published in 1565, some curious notes
on the rapid generation of diamonds at that time. And he affirms that
the soil a few feet below the surface will, in the interval of two
or three years, produce diamonds again; but he also admits that the
largest gems are only found at much greater depths.
Mr. Voysey, who examined the principal mines in Southern India in 1821,
was also assured by the miners of this reproduction; and from his
investigations he was led to adopt similar views.
Dr. Buchanan in 1813 visited the famous Pannah mine, and these views
then prevailed at that locality. He examined the diamond-bearing earth,
but observed nothing very peculiar in its formation. It seemed to be
very red, and characterized by pebbles stained by iron and a great
variety of quartz in broken fragments, chiefly white in color, or
stained red in places, or dotted with black spots.
The miners who were then operating the mines assured the Doctor “that
the generation of diamonds is always going forward, and that they
have just as much chance of success in searching earth which has been
fourteen or fifteen years unexamined as in digging in what has never
been disturbed; and in fact,” he says, “I saw them digging up earth
which had evidently been before examined, as it was lying in irregular
heaps as thrown out after examination.”
Borneo is thought to be rich in diamonds, but concerning the extent
and productiveness of the placers but little definitely is known. The
island has long been known as abounding in the gem, but travellers
and mineralogists have been prevented from exploring it by a variety
of causes, chiefly arising from opposition of the native rulers and
difficulty in penetrating into the interior of the country where the
mines are found.
Tavernier was desirous of visiting these mines, but was dissuaded from
going by these supposed or fancied difficulties, and the fact that the
Queen at that time forbade the exportation of the gem. Therefore we
have to regret the absence of the report which this able and truthful
traveller would have made if he had visited those regions.
The Borneo diamonds are reported to be the best in the world, and to
owe their excellence to a faint steel-like tinge and a very vivid
adamantine flash. We are inclined to think, however, that diamonds of
this description may be found in various countries, and that commerce
assigns their locality to Borneo as a matter of convenience and trade.
Borneo is yet a _terra incognita_, and its features have not yet been
made known to geography or even commerce. The second island in size in
the world, and itself almost a continent, it presents a vast field to
the explorer, with its broad prairies, immeasurable forests, deep and
impenetrable jungles, interspersed with lofty ridges of mountains. Its
mineral wealth is undetermined, but enough is known to found the belief
that the island is one of the richest in this respect on the globe.
Concerning the diamond mines we have but imperfect accounts and none
of very recent dates. However, it is known that the character of the
mines is the same as that of India and elsewhere, and that the gems
are found in a gravelly stratum at various depths below the surface.
The best of these mines are said to be situated along the river Lavi,
near Sukkademia, and to be worked in a rude manner by the Malays
and Chinese. Mines on the northwest coast of the island have been
worked extensively, but it is reported that no large diamonds have
been discovered there. The Colonial Secretary, Mr. Low, states that
the gems are found in the greatest quantities in Sango, Landak, and
Banjarmassin, and that the stones, although of small size, are of the
purest water.
The quantity of diamonds afforded by Borneo is not exactly known, but
a recent writer in the Journal of the Geographical Society of London
gives it as about two thousand karats annually. It is also stated by
various authorities that the mines of the island have never yet yielded
a diamond of thirty-six karats in weight.
If these reports are correct, how can we explain the accounts of the
great diamond belonging to the Sultan of Mattan, which may be found in
the History of Java, by Sir Stamford Raffles, and also in the Memoirs
of the Batavian Society?
The famous mines of Brazil, which gave rise to a new era in the
commerce and history of diamonds, were discovered by accident. And
we are not aware of an instance of the discovery of a single diamond
district or region of country, with the exception of the Urals, which
can be ascribed to the results of scientific research. Even the
wonderfully rich mines of the Province of Bahia in Brazil were first
made known by a slave who noticed the similarity of the soil to that
of the diamond mines of Minas Geraes, where he had formerly worked.
In 1727 a Portuguese by the name of Lobo, while visiting the gold mines
of the Sierra do Frio, a desolate country about four hundred miles
north of Rio Janeiro, noticed some bright crystals of stone which the
ignorant miners picked up from time to time and treasured as trifles.
Gathering a number of them, he submitted them to some Dutch traders,
who informed him as to their valuable character. The Dutch at once
contracted with the Brazilian Government for all of the rough diamonds
that might be found, and for a long time controlled the trade. The
mines where the gems were first discovered were situated in the midst
of a desolate country destitute of vegetation and of considerable
elevation above the level of the sea. Since this period other mining
districts have been discovered, and it is now ascertained that the
whole of the vast territory situated between the twelfth and twentieth
parallels of latitude and extending even to Matto Grosso, a thousand
miles distant, belongs to the gem-bearing formation.
This vast space of territory has not been examined scientifically,
and but little is known of its condition except that it is diamond
yielding. Since their discovery the mines have been worked with more
or less activity with slave labor under the direction of companies of
large capital. Skilled labor with the modern appliances of science has
not yet been employed in these mining districts. And the condition
of the country, its laws, and the controlling power of the diamond
corporations, will render the application of scientific skill a
difficult and hazardous task. The explorations are conducted in a
primitive manner during the dry season, which lasts from April to
October. They are made generally in the beds of the streams which have
been dried up by the summer’s drouth. Rivers are sometimes diverted
from their natural course, and their gravelly beds completely removed
to sheds on the banks to await the rainy season, when water, which is
required for washing, will be in abundance. The cascalho, a name given
to the peculiar gravel, composed of quartz fragments mixed with sand
and clay united with a ferruginous cement, which contains the diamonds,
is then placed in shallow troughs, and a stream of water directed upon
it until it is well cleansed, when it is removed and dried in the sun.
The dried residue is then carefully searched for diamonds, and it is
not always easy to distinguish them among a great variety of pebbles,
of which the _débris_ is chiefly composed.
Some of the diamond mines were of great extent and required many
laborers to conduct the operations. That of Mandanga employed twelve
hundred slaves in its excavations alone, besides many free persons
engaged in other duties. The yield of the Brazilian mines at first was
enormous, and one thousand one hundred and forty-six ounces of the
precious gem were shipped to Lisbon in one year. The vast quantities
of the gem thrown upon the markets brought the price of them down to
five dollars per karat.
Consternation speedily spread among the diamond dealers all over the
world; and many of them, believing that the gems would soon be as
common as transparent quartz, declined to invest largely, even at
these low prices. But a panic was checked by the prompt action of
the Brazilian Government, in claiming the working of the mines as a
royal monopoly, and also regulating the supply. In this condition of
affairs the working of the mines and the trade remain at the present
day; but the African discoveries and free explorations may change
this restriction and monopoly if the Cape fields continue to yield
their present supply. According to the estimates of Baron d’Eschwège,
the quantity of diamonds obtained from the Brazilian mines under the
Government restrictions averaged between 1730 and 1814 thirty-six
thousand karats annually, the cost of which amounted to nearly four
dollars per karat.
From a variety of causes the supply gradually diminished until about
the year 1830, when the diminution was so great, coupled with the
increased cost of exploration, that the rough stones cost eight dollars
per karat. In 1843 the discovery of the Bahia mines increased greatly
the yearly supply, which was then about thirty thousand karats. For two
years after the discovery of the Sincora mines the supply amounted to
six hundred thousand karats. But the great distance of the mines from
the large towns and the coast, the fearful malaria which prevailed
in the district, together with the difficulty of obtaining supplies,
have prevented the working of the mines to any great extent; and in
consequence the supply in 1852 sank to one hundred and thirty thousand
karats. In 1732 the price of the rough gem was five dollars per karat,
but in three years after it rose to about eight dollars per karat, and
remained at that figure as late as 1742.
The Brazilian diamonds are generally very small compared with those
yielded by some of the India mines, like that of Gani, which produced a
great many gems of ten to forty karats weight. Of the Brazilian yield
it was found by Professor Tennant that out of one thousand diamonds,
one half weighed less than half a karat; three hundred, less than one
karat; eighty, one and a half karats; one hundred and nineteen varied
from two to twenty karats, and only one reached twenty-four karats.
Brazil still exports annually diamonds to the value of several millions
of dollars, but the exploration has probably been checked by the influx
from South Africa and the consequent fall in prices.
Out of the immense number of gems yielded by these mines,--the district
of Minas Geraes is said to have produced two tons in weight,--it is
strange that more large gems have not been found.
Quite a number of diamonds exceeding fifty karats have been
discovered, and several over one hundred karats, the largest being
known as the Star of the South, which weighed two hundred and
fifty-four karats. This fine gem was found in 1853 in the mines of
Begagem by a negress. It was in the form of a dodecahedral crystal.
Another fine gem, called the Abaethe, was found in 1797 in the alluvium
of the river Abaethe. Three convicts, banished into the interior of the
savage country, wandered about from thicket to thicket and mountain
to mountain, in hope of discovering some treasure that would restore
them again to their friends. After six years of weary wanderings and
severe privations they at length stumbled upon a diamond of one hundred
and five karats in the bed of the river above named. They ventured
to return to the inhabited regions and confided their good fortune
to a priest. He took them at once to the Governor of Villa-Rica, who
suspended the sentence of the convicts and sent the priest to Rio
Janeiro with the gem.
A frigate was despatched with the treasure and the clergyman to Lisbon.
The King, delighted with his acquisition, fully pardoned the convicts
and advanced the priest to a high rank in his profession.
Many attempts have been made to trace the diamonds of Minas Geraes to
primitive and unbroken rocks on the more elevated plateaux or even
among the more distant mountains. And sometimes the gems have been
found in cascalho at a great elevation, or perhaps in crevices of the
sandstones; and hence the idea has arisen that the solid matrix has
been found. The cascalho is the true matrix, whether found in the
lowlands or on the mountain peaks. The color of this conglomerate is
not uniform and varies in many districts. At the rich St. Antonio’s
mine it is of a dark gray; at the Veneno it is of a light ochre with
lumps cemented with ferruginous oxide; in the Pitanga mine it is of
a light gray and almost white, and contains but few diamonds, but of
the finest quality. The observer is sometimes led to believe that the
abundance of the ferruginous oxide is evidence of the abundance of
gems, and this fact is also noticed in the famous mines of Ceylon,
where, however, the diamond does not occur.
Concerning the accounts of finding the diamonds in Brazil in their
native rock, as described by Claussen and later still by Redington,
we are not yet willing to give full credence any more than to the
stories of diamonds having been found in the “old rock” in India. We
have no doubt of the gem having been found in what appears to be a
soft sandstone, but which is in reality a secondary product like the
heterogeneous cascalho. And we can conceive this sandstone-like deposit
to be formed at the bottom of lagoons under like conditions which gave
origin to the conglomerate.
Claussen published in the Bulletins of the Academy of Sciences and
Belles-lettres at Brussels, in 1841, an interesting account of his
observations while searching for a matrix of the diamond.
He affirms that the gems are found at the mines of Grammagon in beds
of a soft sandstone, which he calls a psammite sandstone, and which
resembles the itacolumite, which is much harder. He also describes
several specimens in which the gems are embedded in the sandstone,
but admits that they are not very common. The same writer mentions
instances where they are said to have occurred between plates of mica
like the flattened garnets. Furthermore, he states that the crystals
found in the itacolumite are rounded octahedrons and those found in
psammite sandstone are perfect octahedrons.
Claussen, although he believed the itacolumite to be the matrix of
the gem, was unable to explain its total absence in places where the
itacolumite was greatly developed. He was also forced, when tracing
the origin of the cascalho, to admit the existence of a secondary
itacolumite posterior to the transition formation.
It is interesting as well as perplexing to follow the multitude of
views expressed by mineralogists when attempting to explain the
formation of the diamond. Most of them are determined to give the
gem an ancient origin, and insist upon the action of plutonic forces
upon dioritic veins. Humboldt maintained that the gems of the Ural
Mountains had a geological relation to the carboniferous dolomite of
Adolfskoi as well as to augitic porphyry. But Verneuil and Murchison,
examining the mines, found the alluvia which contained the diamonds
had no carbon; therefore the hypothesis was incorrect, and the matrix
of the stone must be sought in another direction. The mines of Brazil
have been examined during a century past by a number of geologists and
amateurs like Mawe, Martins, St. Hilaire, Claussen, Eschwège, Burton,
Hartt, and others; and to their works we must refer the reader for
extended descriptions of the geological features of the country and the
peculiarities of the gem mines.
In the recent exploration of the diamond fields by Professor Hartt, the
Professor decidedly opposes the views of Claussen by saying, “I do not
believe that the diamond ever occurs in the true palaeozoic itacolumite
in Brazil, but that it is derived from the tertiary sandstones.”
After casual examination of the diamond-bearing sands of the mines
in Bahia, he is also led to believe that they have resulted from the
disintegration of Chapada sandstones; and he regrets that they have
never been critically examined, for he thinks that the mystery of the
origin of the diamond may be solved from their study.
However, from the multitude of hypotheses to which the study of the
subject has given rise, we find nothing to shake our confidence in the
belief of the formation of the diamond in the secondary gravel beds
where they are now found.
Shortly after the opening of the Bahia mines, black, brown, and even
clay-colored pebbles were found associated with the transparent
diamonds in the cascalho. These pebbles were of various sizes,
generally quite small, but sometimes appearing in masses as large as
one thousand karats. Their nature was not at first recognized, and they
were thrown aside with all other stones of little or no value. Finally
a quantity was gathered and sent to a merchant in Paris, where they
were seen by Count de Douhet. The Count in 1867 presented a notice
of them to the Academy of Sciences and pronounced them to be massive
carbon, and a variety of the diamond. The exact localities in Brazil
where it occurs we are unable to describe, but believe them to be
situated in the Province of Bahia. As to the quantity gathered we are
also unable to give a definite opinion, but have reason to think that
it is quite limited; and, moreover, we have yet to learn that it occurs
in any other diamond mines in the world.
The color of the carbon, or carbonado, as it is called by the
Brazilians, is generally black, but it may be light-brown or of a
greenish gray color, when diluted with clay. It is always opaque, but
is not always compact, being sometimes quite porous, like pumice-stone.
It never crystallizes, but generally appears in angular pieces in lumps
or concretionary masses whose specific gravity is 3 to 3.4, while that
of the transparent diamond is 3.5.
The black and perfectly crystallized diamond, which is very rare, is
not to be confounded with this variety.
The hardness of the carbon is equal to that of the transparent diamond,
and probably some of the purest and most compact specimens are harder
even than the limpid variety; for the black gems are generally harder
than the light-colored, and we have for instances the deep-blue
sapphire, the black tourmaline, etc.
At first this newly discovered mineral was pulverized, and its powdered
dust used to polish diamonds and other gems, and was then sold for a
few francs the karat. Lately, however, science has applied its use to
new inventions; and the demand for it in its application to the drill
and the saw has increased its value to several dollars the karat, and
the price is still increasing. Its advantages over the crystallized
varieties are very decided, and it is as hard and has no cleavage
planes, and is therefore far better able to resist the effects of shock.
The only diamond known to have been found in modern times in Western
Europe is that picked up in a brook in the County of Fermanagh in
Ireland. Its weight was not given, but it was stated to be of a reddish
cast and valued by Mr. Rundell at twenty guineas. Some mineralogists
have maintained that the stone in question was not in place and was
probably brought in the crop of some bird of passage from Brazil or the
tropical countries of America.
To us, however, a more plausible and probable theory would be that the
stone was in place, and that its presence is no more remarkable than
the gold nuggets found in the same country. In fact, this instance
is no more strange than the finding of the great American diamond
in Virginia, which was also a solitaire and many miles below the
auriferous fields whence it is supposed to have drifted. We shall not
be surprised to learn of the occurrence of diamonds in other parts
of Europe. Pliny ends his chapter on the diamond by stating on the
authority of Scepsius that diamonds are found in Germany and in the
island of Basilia along with amber.
Eastern Russia was long ago suspected of being diamondiferous; and as
early as 1826 Maurice Englehardt pointed out the resemblance of the
Ural districts to those of Brazil. It was, however, left to Humboldt
and his companions to make known the actual occurrence of these gems
in this country. For in 1829, during their visit to Siberia, they
discovered several diamonds on the estates of Count Porlier, about one
hundred and sixty miles west of Perm, on the western declivity of the
Ural Mountains. Active search having been instituted, forty diamonds
were found in the detritus on the banks of the Adolfskoi. Strange to
relate, they were discovered in the gold-bearing alluvium twenty feet
above the stratum containing bones of mammoths and rhinoceroses. Since
this period they have also been found at several other places along the
Uralian chain.
In commenting upon the occurrence of these diamonds of the Adolfskoi
which are preserved in the collection of Prince Butera, some of our
best geologists have come to a startling conclusion.
Humboldt, Sir Roderick Murchison, and M. Verneuil, obtaining
information from different points in Siberia, have been led to the
belief that the diamond in these localities was formed at a date
subsequent to the destruction of the mammoths.
Since this period Colonel Helmersen has made known other points along
the Uralian chain of mountains where the gem has been found, as
Ekaterinsburg, Kushvinsk, and Versch-Urak. But we have no information
of “placers” of any considerable extent having been discovered, or
the finding of the gem in sufficient numbers to warrant systematic
explorations.
Future research may reveal other localities in Siberia where this gem
occurs, for the country was known to the ancients as furnishing the
adamas.
Amnian in the fourth century mentions the region of Agathyrsi as one of
the gem-bearing countries; and this country included the Ural Mountains
and part of Siberia. It is not at all strange that the exact localities
should have been forgotten during the long intervening space of time
and the many political convulsions that have interrupted commercial
intercourse with those far-off regions.
It was well known that Scythia furnished the ancients with gold for
centuries; but in modern times all trace of the localities was lost
until revealed by the researches of German miners exploring for copper
and iron. Stranger still, the locality of the gold mines in Spain, so
famous in ancient times, is unknown at the present day.
The gold fields of the Southern States of North America have been
known to be diamond-bearing for forty years or more, but as yet no
earnest or well-directed search has been made for the gems. During
this period of time more than thirty diamonds have been picked up by
accident along the gold belt which extends from the central and eastern
portion of Alabama, through Georgia, North and South Carolina, even
to the interior of Virginia. All along this auriferous formation the
itacolumite appears in the gravel beds or in ledges or even in large
mountains in some localities.
In Alabama, where the itacolumite is abundant, several fine diamonds of
three or four karats weight have been found.
The northeastern portion of Georgia has also yielded some beautiful
stones to the miners while washing for gold. Some of these we have
seen and found them to be of the purest water. The Glade mines, a few
miles north of Gainesville, have yielded several fine diamonds, some
of which have been cut in London. They were found by accident in the
riffles of the gold-washing machines, and were preserved by the miners
simply as curiosities. At the Horshaw gold mines, a few miles farther
to the northeast, a large diamond was picked up, but unfortunately
destroyed by the ignorance of the laborers, who unluckily reasoned
like the ancients concerning its destructibility, and therefore tried
the effects of a heavy sledge upon it while placed on an anvil. An
examination of this last deposit in 1866 convinced the writer that it
was a true diamond field; and search was rewarded with the finding of
two small but well-crystallized diamonds. So far as we can ascertain,
all the diamonds thus far discovered in these regions have been finely
crystallized.
North Carolina has also yielded some fine specimens of three and four
karats weight; but the largest diamond thus far found in the United
States and preserved was picked up in 1856 on the banks of the James
River, opposite the city of Richmond in Virginia. The spring floods
had probably washed it down from the gold fields which are situated a
few miles above. The stone was a well-defined octahedral crystal. Its
weight, while in the rough state, was about twenty-five karats, and
its color was of a faint greenish white tinge. Its transparency was
perfect, but its refractions were somewhat impaired by a flaw or a
speck in the interior.
The American diamond-cutting establishment of Morse, Crosby, & Foss, of
Boston, cut this gem very successfully at the cost of about $1,300. The
stone was purchased by a distinguished American athlete in New York,
and worn by him in a breast-pin for many years.
None of these diamond fields have been examined systematically by
experienced miners with a view to their development, and in fact no
definite idea of their limit or their value can be given. But we have
the impression that they are far more extensive than has been imagined
by mineralogists. The returning gem-seekers who have been educated
in the diamond mines of South Africa may investigate ere long these
unknown districts and settle the question beyond further inquiry. In
California, a few diamonds are reported to have been found here and
there among the gold fields, but nothing like a gem placer has yet
been revealed. The geological formations of Arizona and New Mexico are
more promising than any part of the United States, and explorations
may disclose extensive and valuable gem deposits in those regions.
The originators of the famous diamond swindle in Arizona chose their
locality with more than ordinary sagacity.
The account of this daring scheme reads more like romance than reality,
and it was more than ordinary boldness that prompted the perpetrators
to visit foreign lands, purchase quantities of rough diamonds and then
plant them in a distant, desolate, and hostile country to entrap the
wary speculator. The success of this piracy was fortunately checked
by the sagacity of one of the United States geologists exploring the
adjacent territory, who quickly disclosed the fraud, but not in time
to prevent the swindlers from pocketing large sums of money from
speculators in California.
Pliny mentioned Arabia as one of the localities of the gem; but modern
investigators believe that he founded his views on the facts of the
diamonds being obtained from Arabian merchants, and that they really
came from other countries.
This probably is the true version of the commerce of the Arabians
in those days; but we see no objection to the belief that Arabia
may have been a diamond-bearing country in early times, and may
possess undeveloped fields at the present day. Northern Africa was
also asserted to be diamond yielding, and modern investigators have
established the truth of the assertion.
In the year 1867 the attention of gem-seekers was turned to vague
reports of the discovery of rich diamond fields in South Africa, and
the pages of history were examined closely to prove that in ancient
times this continent was known as a diamond country. It is undoubtedly
true that Africa yielded diamonds to the ancients, for within thirty
years several have been found in Algiers, and are now preserved in
the collections of Paris. They were discovered in the auriferous
sands of the river Goumal, in the Province of Constantine, by natives
while washing for gold. They were small in size but of unmistakable
character. This discovery strengthens the ancient report of the
Carthaginians’ procuring the gems from the Etrurians, who brought them
from the interior of Africa.
In 1867 a diamond was discovered by accident in the soil several
hundred miles north of the Cape of Good Hope. The report was not
credited, and it was not until a number had been found and tested that
the attention of adventurous men was fairly aroused. Success soon
rewarded the labors of the first bands of gem-seekers; and the news,
widespread over the world, soon brought thousands of determined and
hardy men, who are even yet earnestly exploring the gem districts and
also revolutionizing the country.
The gem mines now under process of exploration are situated on the
Vaal River and its tributaries, the best of them being found near the
junction of the Vaal and Orange Rivers and from five to six hundred
miles north of the Cape. The locality known as Du Toits Pan soon
became famous and yielded a great number of diamonds, some of them
over 100 karats and one reaching the great weight of 288³⁄₄ karats.
The topography of the country around these mines is characterized by
low, flat-topped hills, which strike the observer at once by their
singularity. The storm clouds, their frequency, their dull gray hue,
their constant commotion, and the nearness of their approach to the
earth are also quickly noticed by the new-comer, so strangely different
are they from the ordinary atmospheric changes.
Five miles to the north of Du Toits occurs one of the most remarkable
mines yet discovered in any part of the world. It is called Colesberg
Kopje, and although one of the richest spots of the globe, it is also
one of the meanest places on God’s earth. Several thousand men have
been actively engaged upon it for a number of years past, and many
thousand diamonds have been taken from it. So rich has been its yield
that it is stated that four thousand have been obtained in a single day.
The extent of the excavation is enormous, and yet all has been done by
simple and even rude means. But little advantage has been taken of the
use of machinery and skilled labor, and most of the operations have
been conducted in a primitive manner. The distance to the coast and the
great expense of transportation is perhaps the principal reason why
different and more satisfactory arrangements have not been made.
The photographs of the appearance of this field and its excavations
strike one with amazement. The countless array of tents in the distance
on the borders of the deposit; the thousands of busy miners; the huge
and deep ditches stretching across the plain, vast enough to float a
fleet of men-of-war; the lofty mounds of thrown-up earth,--all together
present a startling picture never to be forgotten.
The depths of these enormous ditches vary from ten to more than one
hundred feet.
All this herculean labor has been performed in less than twenty years
under the stimulus of extraordinary prosperity, and it indicates a
determination to explore the country thoroughly.
As yet there has been no complete survey of these regions, and the
extent of the diamond fields is still unknown. Sufficient evidence,
however, has been received to indicate that they cover an area of one
thousand square miles, and are situated principally in the Orange
River Free State, but also extend into the Transvaal Republic and Cape
Colony. These districts alone will afford remunerative labor for some
time to come, and we have little doubt but that other fields of even
greater extent will before long be discovered in other parts of Africa.
For a long time past we have been led to regard this continent as
containing the most extensive and richest diamond deposits on the
globe. A great portion of Africa belongs to the geological conditions
which produce the diamonds, and the present explorations will educate
a host of gem-seekers, who will not only investigate other parts of
Africa, but will also explore other countries. Therefore we may expect
the diamond trade to receive a strong impetus for some years to come,
and that new mines may for a time reduce the present prices of the gem.
The largest diamond yet afforded by the South Africa mines is that
called the Stewart. It was found at Waldeck’s plant, in November, 1872,
by a man named Antonies. Its form was that of a modified octahedron,
beautifully crystallized, and exhibiting a faint tinge of yellow.
On the outside of the crystal were a few specks and flaws, but the
interior appears to be free from imperfections. Its original weight was
288³⁄₈ karats.
A vast number of the diamonds found in these fields are tinged with a
faint hue, generally yellow or faint brown. This peculiarity was also
noticed with the yield of the Brazilian mines.
It is quite impossible to give a correct account of the quantity
afforded by these mines up to the present time. It amounts to many
millions of dollars, and is sufficiently large to produce a marked
effect upon the market, but nothing like the panic which followed the
discovery of the Brazilian mines. The value of the diamonds exported at
Cape Town in 1871 is said to have been $7,500,000, but it was probably
much greater.
Australia has afforded to the gold miners quite a number of small
diamond crystals, and gem fields undoubtedly occur within its
borders. Among the auriferous sands of the Maguarie River minute
crystals have been picked by the careless miner from time to time,
and other localities have also afforded specimens of the mineral, but
no systematic search has yet been made for them. A number of these
specimens of diamonds, although of minute form, were exhibited at
Melbourne in 1865.
The islands of Java and Sumatra yield diamonds among their mineral
treasures, but, strange to say, the island of Ceylon, which is the
most remarkable gem deposit in the world, does not produce a single
specimen. The island is not far distant from the gem districts of lower
Bengal. The formation appears to be of the same character, but it is
evident that the geological conditions which deposited the sapphire,
the zircon, spinel, etc., differed from those required by the diamond.