Bisbee daily review., 1906-06-10
Diamonds Worth S288,65i,- 200 Dug From South Afri- Can Field-Their Origin a Riddle of Nature.
DIVIDEND FOR PERIOD
 WAS $1l7,812,9l5.
"What- ls- a. Diamond and Where Did It Come From Is Question Hard to Answer By the Experts.
(By William E. Curtis.)


 Mr. Gardner F. Williams has become a permanent citizen of Washington, after having served nearly twenty twenty years in South Africa as gen- eral manager of the De Beers diamond mines, undoubtedly the most profita- ble business enterprise in the world, While he was in charge, from March. 1899, until July, 1905, they produced SzSS,65l ,2S0 worth of diamonds, and Eaid in dividends the enormous sum Of SLY ,S12,915. The Calumet < Hecia copper mines of Michigan, which are g rerally supposed to be the most valuable mineral property Tn the world, paid S1,S50,000 in dividends up 10 the same date. The DeBeeTs and KIm- berly mines produced diamonds to the value of $246,S1S.S95 under Mir Williams management, and he ether properties of the compapy, the Butt fontein S1.72S.555, and tke Jsgerfon- tein S17,005. .2S0.
 When I asked Mir. Williams What is diamond and where Sid r come from?" he modestly admitted that he dfG not know. He said that he had handled hundreds of millions of col lars worth of them. but "after seven teen years of thoughtful study. cou- Fled with practical researcH, I find 1t easier to drive a coach and four through he. theories which have been propounded than to find evidence to sustain them. All that can be said Is that in some unknown manner car bon, which existed down deep in the internal regions of the earth, was mys- teriously changed by some process Of nature from its black and uninyiting appearance 10 the most beautiful gem that ever saw the light of day.
 'The chemical composition of dia- mcnds has been long determined, at least approximately. Sir Isaac New. ton coniectured it to be of vegetable cTigon and combustible,- but it was Lot until 1894 that. Newton's assumption or its combustihility was actually prov en and finally the experiments Jf Sir Humphrey Dayy in 1916 showed that it was almost entirely pure carbon. But the process of the formation of crystal- HZation of the diamond carbon is still uncertain. The proofs are most con elusive that the diamonds in the South African mines were formed ID sIlu. bur have been driven up from below by the volcanic action I have been Lf the opinion that diamonds were c-ys- tolized in very much the same way as quartz or other minerals. but lndar peculiar circumstances, possibly of pressure and heat, that gave them their remarkable individuality nd beauty
 There are. as I have said. ro end of theories to explain how the ey were made and how they happened to be buried in old volcanic crate.s. Sid William Crookes concluded that the diamonds found in the Souts African mines are specialization of pure rar= bon in molten masses of uon which form part of the internal regions of the earth Another great chemist be lieves that a diamond is she crystal hzation of carbonic gas reduced io a liquid state by enormous pressure n a subaqueous volcano. vhllo we nave another fantastic theory from MeydeEhauer, German chemist, that The diamond came with fhe fall cf meteors. a direct gift from heaven. Sir William Crookes faoes nos consi l. e. this theory so .fantastic as you would suppose. He declares: T am bould to say that there, are many cir rumstances which show that the no- ton of the heavens raining diamonds is Dou i1Dossih.e.' The Ava meteor fte, which fell in Hungary in 1s4s. contained graphite in cubic crystalline form. which chemists have thought was produced by the transformation of diamonds, and diamonds have act ually been fcund in metecrites in Aus tralia. Russia and in Canyon Diable Arizcna-
 However" said Mir. Williams, Afr ca is a fairy land with caverns filled with buried treasures, gold, diamonds, gsrnets, ,ubies. sapphires agates and the lark recesses of extinct volca- rcesS'
 How do you get the diamonds eut?S I asked. w
 Tn the first place, we dig out what Is called blue ground, the principal filling of the volcanic pipes or era ters, and carry 1t away ir trucks by er6iess wire ropes driven by steam to great smooth, earthen floors. which have been levsled and hardened with heavy oilers. These are called Ire cciying grounds and are laid out sep aroJely for each of the four mines of our company. They cover several thousand acre5 They sfssyiH abeat T file from the mines and extend about three miies. Each of them will hoid