The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-04-18
GLOBE 1R0TTER At
HOTEL OACOTAH
TODAY
Talks Interestingly of Black
Diamonds Where the Jewels
Come From.

Black diamond used in diamond
drills. more commonly called carbons
by the trade. come mostly from the
state of Bahia. in Brazil. said Maurice
S. Dessau of New York, representing
S. Dessau's Sons of New York, I'M
porters of black diamonds. bortz and
rough diamonds. at the Dacotah. They
were first discovered there in 1921.
in the range of mountains known as
Sierra do Sincora, but not until 1874,
was any impetus given to the mining
OF the stones AS soon as it became
known that diamonds in quantity had
been found, great numbers of people
set out for that region. The state
divides the diamond region into four
teen districts.
The geogical formation of the re-
gion is interesting. and shows that at
some time in the history of the world
the mountains were thrown up as Il
hot mass of stone. and the diamonds
there found are the carbon which, by
great heat and pressure. crystallized.
A considerable portion. for lack of
proper conditions. failed to crystalize
and is now encountered in hard,
known in trade as carbon.
In the principal section the dia-
monds and carbons occur together in
sandstone and a conglomerate com-
posed OF round. water-washed pebbles
with very hard matriX. In some in
stances the matriX is of sandy
character. but more frequently it re-
sembles dark-colored cement. The
diamonds and carbons cannot be re-
moved. except from the soft sandstone,
because of the impracticability Of
breaking the rocks without crushing
the precious stones, to say nothing of
the expense such a method would en-
tail. Instead. the miners take advan-
tage of the disintegrating effect of
water and weather. and they work by
removing the debris from the gullies
between the rocks and the cavities
under and around them. and this they
wash for the stones and carbons they
are after.
AS in all mining regions. there are
records of great finds with a small
amount of work. and records of a
great amount of work with great pri
walton and no finds. In general. the
present condition of the section is not
such as to offer any encouragement
for new miners who would work ac-
cording to the present system, par
ticularly for those who could not exist
upon jerked beef. beans and manioc
meal, the only available food, and who
could not work and live under all
kinds of weather conditions. in a Sec
ton rich in mosquitoes and subject
to malarial fevers OF the worst type.
1T is true that perhaps as many as
5000 people work more or less at
the mines. but they do not labor sys-
tematically. and only take out such
material as can easily be removed.
Their only implements are hoe. a
crowbar, hook-shaped piece of metal
eight inches long, mounted on pole
three or four feet in length, with
sometimes a hammer and a hand drill,
and two wooden basins. The miners,
in their rude methods, have washed
the sand down the rivers, have COW
cred up most productive river beds,
and have piled gravel. broken stones,
ETC., upon sections which easily could
have been mined with little modern
machinery, but which will now necessi-
tate considerable capital to prepare
them for operation.
"The out put of diamonds for the
district now averages about $500
carats month. Unless there are i'm
provements in mining. and modern
methods and machinery are intro
duced, the output will undoubtedly
decrease year by year. while the de-
mand is constantly increasing. The
largest carbon avor encountered waS
found in the Lencoes district in 1895,
on the ledge o. a mountain which had
been worked some time before. IT,
weighed $3.50 carats. and was pur-
chased from the miner for $4,000,
later selling for $25,400. In 1901 a
find Of carbon weighing 577 carats was
made. This sold for $17,3SO. The
average size of the carbons encount-