The Republican journal., 1905-01-26

country for miles around No machin-
cry had ever been employed here, no.
body had invested any money, and the
adventures, who had lost nothing but
extravagant hopes, were quite as con
tented in one place as in another.
Therefore many of the examiners be-
came small farmers and, unfortunately
for rapid progress, the Sac Francisco
prairie is SO we'll adapted to agricultur-
al purposes that the lazy Caboclos can
supply all their simple wants by work
ing two or three months out of the
twelve. Though diamond hunting was
practically at an end in this locality
more than thirty years ago desultory
search is still kept up; and with very
fair returns, it seems to me, considering
the methods employed. have visited
a number of WALLACE shops and the
bamboo huts of Caboclo citizens, osten-
sibly to buy diamonds; and in every
case little stem of bamboo has been
produced, hollow like bottle, with
twisted leaf stuck in the end for cork,
out of which the master of the house
ratified number of small diamonds in
to the palm of his hand. Sometimes
the stones we're not diamonds at all,
only pretty bits of quartz; and always
the owners wanted more for each tiny
gem than would be asked for much
larger and better diamonds in Paris,
London or New York. Though of pur-
est water, Brazilian diamonds are uni
| formly small as compared with those of
India. To be sure, few very large
ones have been found, notably the Es-
trella do Sui, "Star of the South"
which figured at the Paris Exposition
i'll 1856 as rival to the celebrated Koh-
moor ("Mountain of light, ~ which had
produced such sensation at the first
London Exposition few years before.
The three immense stones that now
blaze in the crown of Portugal, one
weighing PSI carats, another an ounce
troy and the third 12O carats, were also
found in Brazil; but these are rare ex-
ceptions.
went to visit the principal mine, if
such it can be called, from which the
greatest number Of stones in the Good
Jesus" locality have been taken. 1t is
about three miles from the village and
looks like an ordinary gravel pit dug
out of the side of hill Presently,
however, when the eye has time to take
in the surroundings and details, one
recognizes that it is something more.
Here and there on the level bottom of
the pit are little heaps of unwashed
gravel, and outside are larger mounds
of white, washed-out looking dirt, the
refuse of the washings. On one side
was rude conduit, made out of split
and followed palms, which brings a
little stream from the river down the
dllapldated trough at the entrance of
the pit The diggings are backed by a
wooded hill, and a glance shows why
the workings do not "pan out" any
longer AS of yore.
1t seems that the diamond bearing
strata, lying in thin beds of gravel, run
nearly on level straight into the slop-
ing hillside; consequently with every
yard that has been worked the strata
lies deeper and deeper below the sur
face Therefore if, as it appears, the
diamonds exist in thin, horizontal lay
ers of gravel, one above another to
what depth nobody knows-separated
by other layers of gravel of different
that proper machinery in intelligent
hands would unearth greater guam
tity of precious stones than have ever
yet been seen in Brazil. From Swiss
miner who lately returned to Bonn
Jesus from a diamond-hunting expe-
dition along the distant southwestern
branches of the Rio Sac Francisco, |
have gained much information. He
brought over the result of his eighteen
months labor to show us-a small sack
of diamonds, perhaps two quarts i'll all,
which he estimates to be worth some
where in the neighborhood of 100000,
quite sufficient, he says, to make him
comfortable for life in the fatherland.
This successful person tells us that
though the first diamonds were discov-
cred in Bahia province, the provinces
of Natto- Grosso and Minas- Geraes have
subsequently yielded much greater and
richer returns. In all the diamond dis
tricts the geological formation is about
the same, 'tformacao dimante' being
the name given in Brazil to the various
minerals that are found accompanying
diamonds, whether they exist in the
beds or shores of rivers, or in desert
plains, or high up among the hills.
There are few places, such as the
Sierra da Sac Antonio and the Matte do
Corda, where diamonds have been found
imbedded in rocks away up in the noun
tains; and the very richest formation
yet known-a hard conglomerate-
lies upon beds of marble.