The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1903-05-08
DIAMONDS IN AMERICA.
Been Found in Gravel Beds in
This ntry.

The presence of fresh water pearls
in American streams is a compare
lively well-known fact: The discor-
cry of diamonds in the United States
has not been SO. widely advertised,
largely, no doubt, because so few
jewels of the latter kind have been
found here, says the New York Trib-
une. South Africa is now the largest
producer in the world, and Brazil
ranks next in present yield. India,
Borneo and the Ural mountains of
Russia have in the past supplied a
great many diamonds. In nearly
every country which supplies these
stones they are found at consider
able distance from the vein of min
eral in which they were once de-
posted. South Africa affords a
marked exception to the rule. In
that part of the world they are en-
bedded in pans" or pipes" which
are streaks of lava, that have invad-
ed black shaly rock. The suspicion
is now entertained that the intense
heat of volcanic action may have
converted some of the carbon in the
shale into jewels.
One of the regions in the United
States from which small diamonds
have been obtained is the Piedmont
plateau, at the southeastern base
of the Appalachian chain, between
southern Virginia and Georgia.
Nearly, or quite dozen, one reach
ing % carats in size, have been
picked up there, under circumstances
that suggest the probability of hav-
ing been transported-rolled down
hill. perhaps-many miles from the
place of their birth. Geological con-
ditions like those existing at Kimber-
ley have been observed in Kentucky,
but up to date no diamonds have yet
been discovered in that state. A pos.
sible eXpla ton of the failure is
the lower proportion of carbon in
the shale.
A somewhat difficult problem is
raised by finding seven diamonds,
ranging in size from to 21 carats,
and a number of smaller ones, in the
Great Lake region, under circum-
stances that indicate that they were
brought there by the great ice sheet
of the glacial period. Most of the
stones were discovered in Wisconsin,
but Michigan and Ohio have each re-
ported one or two also. In every
instance the jewels were hidden in
the gravel of "kettle moraine,"
kind of deposit which biologists
recognize as having been left by
glacier. Since the ice sheet which
carried these stones into the United
States doubtless travelled hundreds
of miles, possibly thousands, it is
hard to locate the center from
which they proceeded. although this
must haveebeen up in British terri
tory somewhere. However, Canadian
biologists have lately expressed the
opinion that the highest land from
which the ice sheet flowed existed
west of Hudson bay, but that the
source of the ice which invaded the
lake region was Labrador, east of
Hudson bay.
The fact of greatest practical i'm
portance is that other glacial mo-
raines in the United States may pos
siblv contain Jewels like those al
ready discovered in the lake region.
There are such deposits in south
western New York and on Long Is
land, for instance. 1t would pay to
keep sharp lookout where gravelly
ridges are being cut for roads or
tother purposes in order to insure
the firding of jewels if any exist
there. Diamonds in the rough are
not exactly round. though they may
have blunt corners. They tend to
assume a crystalline shape. and have
slightly curving, not fiat, sides. Some
of the Wisconsin diamonds had over
a dozen facets. The form does not
closely resemble the cut stone, nor
does the pebble glisten. Their re-
markable hardness enables them to
scratch all other substances. Per-
haps they may not be over six
teenth or an eighth of an inch in
diameter. But anything family sug-
oestive of a cubical bit of material
found in glacial gravel ought to re-
ceive critical study.
EIurnu,ery.