The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-11-05
WHENCE CAME .THEYp

found in various parts of the United
States. and often in very unexpected
places. They have been found in the
States of the Northwest, and in the States
OF the South, as we'll as in California
and other portions of the West. No coun-
terpart of Kimberly, or of the Australian
diamond fields has been discovered, nor
has there been any real diamond mine
found in any part of the United States.
Nor has there yet been discovered a rival
for the Orioff, the Regent or the Kohl
moor, but the fact that genuine diamonds.
small in size, but of undoubted character,
have been found in widely scattered To-
calities in the United States Is beyond
question. 1t has not been long since one
was picked up in Russell County, in this
State, not many miles from Columbus,
which the finder sold for $50, so it is reg
ported. Some time last year, If we are not
mistaken. a fine, though small, diamond
was found in Shelby County.
These and many other instances of
which record has gotten into the papers
prove that real diamonds are scattered
all over the Union in many cases at or
near the surface of the earth. How did
they get there? Unless We assume that
these gems are promiscuously strewn over
the earth, just as stones of various kind
may be found in almost all sections of
the country, how are We to account for
their presence?
And here the theory of the glaciers
comes in, for that a great portion of
what is now the United States was once
immense fields of ice is now practically
beyond question. So well is this fact es-
| tablshed. and so plainly have these gla-
| ciers left their marks that scientists can
| define their limits with some degree of
accuracy and one of the evidences is the
| existence of stones, either In large single
blocks or in great deposits, which were
| undoubtedly brought from a distant re-
gon. In some cases a great stone is
found of a character entirely different
from anything in the vicinity, but its
counterpart exists many degrees north of
its present location. AS the circumstances
preclude the idea of water carriage, and
as it is evidently not indigenous where
now found, the only tenable theory is that
Of glaciers. These immense fields or seas
of ice were formed in the frozen regions
of the north and by some great force
were gradually precipitated, as it were, in
the direction of the equator. How long
the Journey lasted no one knows, nor just
when it terminated, but one may read its
course by the record it has left. Wher-
| toll as 1t passed. 1t carried before it, or
| embraced in its constantly moving sub
stance. specimens of the minerals existing
| in its pathway. When it reached the
warmer regions of the temperate zone it
gradually melted away. and there 1t left
the cargo of ponderous matter 1t had
brought with it for many miles and dur
ing many ages-possibly cons Huge
masses of stone are found which can only
be accounted for on the theory Of ice-car-
riage. Here and there are also to be
found the glacial moraines" hills or beds
| OF BFdNei anu peDDleS lell there just dS
they were deposited in the great past by
these strange carriers.
But what has all this to do with dia-
monds? some one may ask Well, "reven-
Gus a nos moutons." as the French say
'1et us return to our sheep" and gel
back to our diamonds The new theory
is that somewhere in the far-away re-
gions Of the north, possibly at some place
IN British North America, there is an
immense diamond field, a rival to Aus.
tralia, Africa or any other region of the
! globe. These gems which are scattered
throughout the United States had their
home in this northern field and there the
glacier picked them up, just as 1t picked
up stones and gravel, brought them with
it in the same way, and. when the suns
rays dissolved the solid ice-felds into mist
and vapor, the diamonds were left, just
as the other minerals were left. In some
cases they have remained on the surface
in others, they have been covered Ky the
Accommodations Of ages, to be uncovered by
other ages of erosion, or they may be
yet hidden away to be discovered by
the pick of the miner.
Is the theory fanciful? If so. what bet.
ter one is there2 The diamonds are found
~