The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-08-02
SEX DIAMONDS.
Wisconsin Professor Finds Evidence
TO Encourage his Search.

TO Encourage his Search.
MADISON. Wis. Aug. LA Wiseon-
ain man Is looking for a new Kimberley
on the American continent He knows
that It Is there. but Is not sure that be
win hnd it There are millions In It
and It IS a little strange that the quest
has attracted so little attention and
that there have been no spies on his
trail seeking to be. In at the discovery
OF the promised diamond mines. From
time to time diamonds have been found
In Waukesha county and the neighbor-
Ing parts OF Wisconsin. sapphires have
ben found there In much greater guam
titles than diamonds.
At times the faculty Of the state
university and gem experts from else
where have Investigated these dia-
mond fields. with the result that they
were pronounced not to be diamond
fields at all, as the region has abso-
luteiy none OF the geological formations
OF demonstrating country. So the
dreams OF diamond mines vanished.
The stray diamonds were strays. that
was all. How they came to be there.
none thought 70 conjecture until Dr..
". II. Hobbs. professor OF mineralogy
in the state university, began 10 inyes-
tigate the matter.
There were diamondS there. they did
not belong to that region. How did
they get there? Perhaps dropped by
the aboriglnes, though that was hardly
plausible theory. When gold Is
found in the bed OF rivers. the miners
know that IL has been wished down
from somewhere. They follow the
traces Of the gold and look for the
mother lode and thus many rich mines
have been discovered. But one could
hardly expect TO find trail OF diamonds
leading 10 the mother pans. However.
the gold hunters methods furnished a
suggestion. Where did the diamonds
come from? Where did the bOulders
and glacial debris Of the Kettle range
OF hills In southern Wisconsin come
from? They didn't belong TO the un-
derlying local geological formations any
more than the diamonds.
Then what more natural conclusion
than that the great Ice cap which
brought down the boulders pushed up
the Kettle range as a terminal moraine
and dug the myriads Of lakes. also
brought down the diamonds. So as
these boulders had a home somewhere
In the far and frozen north. so had Ine
diamonds. Boulders ard diamonds
came together from British America,
from the shores of Hudson's bay. from
I.abrador, from the Mackenzie. Labra-
dor is the original home OF the dia-
mondE, In DR.. Hobbs opinion, and ne Is
on his way thither. He will follow
the path OF the glacier and It IS taking
him In that direction at present. II Is
easy to follow the direction taken by
the ice cap. But whether the ice cap
did not erase all external manifestations
OF the volcanic crumplings OF the dla-
mond pans when Il was picking up dia-
monds and boulders, remains TO be
seen.
II is possible that diamond field may
be found nearer than Labrador. In
deed, a geOlogist of NASSAU. Mr.. T. w.
Clark. has risen to say that the diamond
field Is in northern Wisconsin or Mich
lgan. He says: Don't Labrador me.
The man who talks Labrador talks
through his hat. Well-infOrmed men
estimate that the upper peninsula OF
Michigan contains more carbon than the
state OF Pennsylvania, and no part Of
the world had more heat and pressure
applied 10 Its rock than upper Michi-
gan. We see here all the conditions
required for q great natural diamond
factory, while the stray diamonds pick
"a out Of the glacial drift in southern
Wisconsin prove that the great natural
diamond factory OF upper Michigan has
ben successfully operated at some for
mer time"