The record-union., 1897-04-15

vision lying behind than any one else
had ever had. An
But NJ Moissan's diamonds are very,
very small One must use a magnify
ing glass to convince himself of their
true nature. They will not answer to
make a necklace. A thousand of them
would make a very poor show in a
cluster ring Some one must open the
curtain wider and keep it open longer,
before coy nature will yield completely.
and reveal to curious and impertinent
man her most charming enigma in all
it's mysterious details.
And perhaps it would be better if NJ.
Moissan should never succeed in max
ing any diamonds bigger than PIN
head If he could make large dia-
monds, and could keep the secret to
himself there is almost no limit to
the wealth he might acquire; but such
a secret could never be preserved. Be
sides. hundreds of others are, or Will
be, at work on the same problem ana
along similar lines. If they succeed
the king of gems will be dethroned. D1-
Almonds are costly not merely because
of their beauty, but mainly because OF
their rarity When everybody can have
them nobody will want them.
DIAMONDS AND VOLCANOES.
In the meantime all these expert
ments and discoveries are beginning 10
give us a glimpse behind another edge
of natures curtain. II we can learn
how she makes diamonds, and what
are the conditions and surroundings OF
her gem-p producing furnaces, then we
shall be the better prepared to hnd out
the places where she has hidden them
in the earth. Well, it is known that
in the South African diamond fields the
gems are found in So-called pipes.
These pipes are round or oval-shaped
spots on the surface of the ground,
sometimes several acres in extent, and
composed of a peculiar kind of rock,
which runs deep down into the earth.
The fact that they have such a shape,
and that they are composed of rock
differing in character from that sur
rounding them, suggests Immediately
that the pipes" must have connec-
tion with some phenomenon lying deep
in the bowels of the globe. In other
words, they must have been formed by
the action of a deep-seated power
which forced the materials of which
they are composed up through the
crust of the earth to the surface. Such
considerations lead to the conclusion
that the pipes are nothing else than
necks of ancient volcanoes, chock-fuli
of solidified lava, and worn down by
the effects of time and the elements to
a level with the ground.
The rock in the diamond pipes" has
become partially disintegrated near the
surface ard exhibits a yellowish color
1t is rich in iron and scattered through
its mass are found the diamonds-those
most precious plums in natures huge
roll-puddings. Deeper down, where
the effects of the weather have not
reached, the rock is of blue color,
harder and firmer. Yet it is still
sprinkled through with diamonds. This
part of the pipe" at more or less
considerable depth below the surface
of the ground, is called by the diamond
seekers the mother rock as If it were
some mystical representative of the
| generative power of nature which had
given birth to a brood of living gems.
And certainly, in all the mineral world,
there is nothing which seems to ap-
proach closer to actual life than the di-
amond, with its dancing and shifting
rays never at rest, and with its pecu-
liar power of storing light and yield
| ing it again in phosphorescent radi-
ance when placed in a dark chamber.
The fact that the mother rock" bears
some resemblance to meteoric stones is
| both interesting and significant.