The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1905-07-14
GENERAL HISTORY.

the head not only of precious stones,
but Of all human riches, STANDS the dia-
mond; which for a long time was only
known to even a few kings" And to-
day, az in .so days of Pliny, the dia-
nord cl.ms first place of "all human
rie';es."
AS in the past, the gem Of gems
through its brilliancy-apart from its
Intrinsic value fascinates and com
msnds the admiration of the present
ago. as nothing else inanimate can do.
Some 5000 years ago the diamond
was known apd appreciated in India,
as c1ay be inferred from the Vedas or
sacred writings of the Hindus; which
writings were hoary with age, when
Bul6ha left his beloved wife, palace
and pleasures of the earth earthly to
preach brotherly love and humanity to
his people 600 b. c.
No account of the diamond among
the Egyptians, Chaldeans or ancient
Hebrews, and not until the return of
Alexander the Great Macedonian
king) from his c~onquests in India, 1923
B. G., was the diamond known to Eu-
rope, Asia Minor, or North Africa. The
Indian river from Alahabad to vicin-
ity of Madras have been and are yet
more or less productive of diamonds.
A French iewelsr in A. d. 1869, visit
ed India to purchase diamonds, and re-
turned with wonderful stories about
the diamond industry of the "far
east He maintained that in Golcon-
da alluvial diamond diggings alone
there were 10000 semi slaves employ
ed. He gave us first description Of the
"Great Mogul'' diamond said to be ia.
ken from the Golconda diggings. This
famous stone was 1879 in rough and
wal only $50 carats after being badly
cut and polished by a Venitian, who
expended two years labor on the stone.
This stone is supposed to be the "Koh-
i-Nur;' which was taken from an In
dian prince without his willing consent
in 1850, by British authority. 1t was
subsequently cut to 106 carats and
set in the English rown. The Kohl
Nur (mountain of light, though one
of the most famous stones in the world,
is of comparative inferior quality.
The art of cutting and polishing dia-
monds, as now existing, was unknown
to the world until discovered and intro
duced by Louis de Berghem of Bruges,
Belgium, A. d. 1,456. Instead of cut
ting facets on the gem stone, the Hin
dus-who knew the value of diamond
dust as a cutting agent-only imper-
fectly polished the natural original
faces.
Paris, Nuremberg, Bruges, Venice
and Lisbon were in turn chief centers
of diamond polishing. The Jews, who
were the diamond polishers of Lisbon,
when expelled from Portugal settled
in Amsterdam, which has been since
then the gem cutting center of civil
zation.
Up to within the past few years the
product of diamonds, like that of gold,
was mainly confined to ailuyial dig;
gings. India was the only producer of
the precious stones until discoveries
made by a Portuguese monk 1,727, IN
Brazilian auriferous placers far inland,
which were worked for gold steadily
for thirty years previous to this dis
coyerv of diamonds in India. The dI-
amondiferous sands of Brazil are wide
spread, the chief center being Diaman-
tina province of Minas Geraes, about
500 miles from the coast at the head
of the Rio Doce (river doce). Brazilian
diamonds are small but of fine quality.
Apart from river diggings, diamonds
are washed from what was known as
upland deposits, which include a bre-
ciated clayey strata of considerable ex-
tent formed from the decomposition of
coarse c~onglomerate. The strata has
three distinct layers. The first is soil
somewhat diamondiferous, the second
a tenacious barren clay, the third is
called tana, and is the real diamond
bearing stratum. Large areas of this
di~amondiferous ground have been, and
are being still, worked with more or
less success.
This breciated diamondiferous strata
10 ~evIdeutlv the outflow of n series of
vents which, if not obliterated by some
dynamic or other disturbing cause, will
be discovered some day in the future
and the source or sources of the Bra
lillian diamond be for one and ever
solved.
At the head waters of the Macquarie
river, New South Wales, diamonds
were first discovered in Australia in