The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-10-30
4 NEW MUNCHdUSEN.
Remarkable Development Of Gems by
Volcanic Action.

The st. houis Times has marvellous story,
which purports to come in letter from the
captain of vessel trading between San Fran
cisco and Valparaiso, and which describes
what he witnessed in the Pacif, Ocean, but in
what latitude he keeps secret to himself
The substance Of the letter is as follows:
When nearly half way on the voyage, and at
the time the earthquake took place, a fearful
phenomenon presented itself. The ocean be-
came convulsed to it's mightiest depths, and
terrible wave was swept along so high thar, as
the captain humorously said, he thought 1t
The senmen were terribly frightened, but
the vessel was to rights again in less than ten
minutes.
The affair was mere joke among the men,
for they fancied it was one Of the high tidal
waves which are common In the Pacific. !ney
continued their voyage, but toward mldmsht
were alarmed by an extraordinary light, Wnlcn
appear ed in the heavens and was first noticed
on tho larboard side, and which the Ignorant
and superstitous attributed to supernatural
causes. The captain, who seems to pc an In
telligent and courageous man, steered his YES
ael right in tho direction Of the light, and just
before sunrise sight ofmagnifcence-such as
no human eye has ever rested on-met bis gaze.
1t WIS no less than group OF islands formed
of hugo masses ofsoliG diamond OF every color,
and, in some places. of the purest brlllancy.
The sailors fell into stacies, and one man,
half-breed from the Sandwich Islands, lost
his senses so far that he would have thrown
himself owe board if he had not been tied
down. They sailed among the group the en-
tire day, and found it to consist, on rough
calculation, at from twelve to twenty IN num-
Der; but the exact number, or their relative
size, thore WAS no time to ascertain. They con-
sst of large, white flint rocks Of crystalized
shape (some places nearly transparency which
rise to height OF about one hundred and fifty
feet from the water. Thick layers OF various
metals are imbedded into them, and the dla-
monds form thick layers beside these latter.
This is the general formation; but some of
the smaller islands are composed nearly alto
gether of diamond, in which the emerald pre-
walls. There are agate Opaque. topaz, ruby,
and, deed, diamonds Of every hue; but one
island, which he describes as being almost
seventy miles long by fifteen wide, consists OF
On entirely pure emerald without any admi1-
ture Of foreign substance. 1t was difficult to
effect landing on any OF the group. At length
some of tho men succeeded; but the captain
himself, satisfied with what he had seen, did
not leave the vessel.
The men describe the interior Of the island
on which they landed as consisting almost en-
trely Of mud, which is gradually coagulatiDg
under the heat OF the sum- A curious thing
was, that the brilliants were seen in the muddy
quarters of the island, lying about like huge
boulders-the smallest ones they saw being
about two hundred tons in weight; but there
were numbers Of others considerably larger.
OF course, there Was no water or vegetation to
be seen. The most curious effect the sight he'd
on tho men, both those on the vessel as we'll
as those who visited the island, was that the
extraordinary brillancy sickened their stom-
achs, and vomiting, followed by copious DIS
charge from the bowels, was the consequence.
Ali efforts to detach portions of the diamond
rock proved abortiYe, and it WAS out OF ques-
t on to attempt rem wing any OF the great bril-
liant boulders They made an attempt to de-
tach portions of rock by means Of crowbar
and sledge, but it was 80 hard al efforts were
useless, and though they had powder enough
| on board they had no implements with which
to drill the holes for blasting. The captain
would have proceeded Oh his voaSo to Val
paraiso; but tho men mutinied and obliged
with tho consent Of the crew, ran the vessel
| on shore on the northern coast OF olumbia,
| and, telcgraphiDg to the owners that she was
| lost, came on as far as Aspinwall, from which
CITY he wrote to his Drothor in st. Louis. Ho
desired his brother to come along ut once, and
bring with him the finost and best tempered
| implements for blasting purposes and If posi-
bic, quantity CT nitro-glycorine. The brother
departed for New York mediatcly, but before
going he communicated tho secret 10 o conf
Dental conlrado, through whom the news
leaked out only as late rs yesterday evening.
am told that it Las ALREADY reached the ears
OF rich jcweller in This city, who is about to
start an expedition which lie purposes to carry
on himself. It is more than probable that the
crew of the abandoned vessel have anticipated
him; and if they were lucky enough to keep
their secret and fit out small craft with what
ever they required on board, are now quarrying
in the diamond archipelago.
p. ST. forgot to state that the captain writes
that the entire bottom of the sea seemed as if
glittering with gems for at least five miles from
the islands. These will probably never be Of
use, for they must be huge rocks OF diamond,
and cannot be detached unless some better
mode of blasting under water than that already
practiced can be invonted. Iforgot also to add
my conjecture that the reason the diamond
rock is seen in its full purity arises from the
fact that they were projected right forward from
the very centre of the earth. What the captain
calls white transparent 1iot rock is probably
some formation not known as yet to geologists.
This will be better understood as soon as the
place is explored.