from vulgar inspection as a beauty of the harem. This suspicious privacy, together with its extraordinary weight of 1680 carats, induces a general belief that the stone is not a diamond, but a white topaz. Its value, if genuine, would amount, according to the usual mode of calculation, to the fabulous sum of 58,350,000l. ! As far as mere size is concerned, the "Stewart," from the South African diggings, is entitled to a foremost place among celebrated diamonds; but the jewels with the human interest of a story attaching to them-the" Orloff," the " Florentine," the "Regent," the Koh-i-noor," the " Sancy" hail from the banks of the Kistna, or the mines of Raolconda or Bundelcund. Two of these, the Koh-inoor and the Orloff, have singularly shared the vicissitudes of successive dynasties, and by their present position among the crown jewels-the one of England and the other of Russia-seem to symbolize the division of the sceptre of the East between those two great, powers. These twin stones are believed to be the fragments of a mighty crystal of 793 carats, of which the tradition has been preserved by Tavernier, a French jeweller, who made a professional tour in the East in the time of the Grand Monarque. Their earliest history is, as may readily be imagined, obscure. Conjecture, based upon their shape and size, makes them glitter for ages as the eyes of some monstrous idol in a Brahminical temple. History meets them at the capture of Agra and the overthrow of the native prince of Golconda, when they fell by separate caprices of fortune into the hands of the conquering Mogul dynasty. Baber exulted in the possession of the Koh-i-noor, and in his reminiscences estimates its value as equal to that of half the daily sustenance of the entire world. The same stone was seen by Tavernier in the treasury of Aurungzebe, and its companion was shortly afterward extorted by that undutiful son from the possession of his captive father, Shah Jehan. They next appear as the spoil of Nadir Shah in 1739, and were in all likelihood seen by Pallas shining side by side upon the throne of the Persian conqueror, with the titles respectively of the "Mountain" and the "Sea of Light." After his assassination in 1749, their stories divide. The " Derya-i-noor" was stolen by a French soldier, and, by the intervention of an Armenian named Shafras, reached the Amsterdam market, where it was purchased by Count Orloff for the Empress Catherine II. The Koh-i-noor" was carried off by Ahmed Shah, and, under stress of prolonged persecution, was surrendered by his unhappy descendant, Shah Soojah, to the greed of Runjeet Singh. An attempt was made, on the plea of breaking the spell of misfortune which was supposed to accompany the jewel, to induce the Sikh chieftain to bequeath it on his deathbed to the temple of Juggernaut; he was, 66 86 ** Schrauf, "Handbuch der Edelsteinkunde." The fact that the base of each jewel is a natural cleavage-plane strongly supports this view. however, obdurate, and the famous "Mountain of Light" illumined the treasury of Lahore until, after the British conquest of the Punjaub, it was formally presented by Lord Dalhousie to the Queen of England. Its weight was then 186 carats, but having been cut after the Indian manner, with a view to the preservation of its size rather than to the display of its lustre, it was less effective than many a counterfeit gem. It was accordingly recut as a regular" brilliant" by the best artist Amsterdam could produce, at a sacrifice of 80 carats and a cost of 80007.; but to the eye of a connoisseur its form, even still, leaves much to be desired. The political conditions of the world have hardly changed more within the last two hundred years than the conditions of diamonddigging; and revolutions in the diamond trade succeed each other as rapidly nowadays as revolutions in republics and empires. One still more fundamental has quite recently been threatened, but appears for the present to be averted. It remains to be seen whether the alarm excited by its approach was an empty panic or a just presentiment. Hitherto, new diamond-fields have been opportunely discovered as fast as the old ones became exhausted. It may now be hoped that, by the time nature's store comes to an end, that of the laboratory will be ready for use. The mines of Golconda* no longer pay the expenses of working. Where in 1665 Tavernier found 60,000 persons in lucrative employment, a few sudras and pariahs now earn a bare subsistence by sifting the gravel in search of its scanty treasures. Another region had in the mean time suc ceeded to the ancient honors of India. About 1725 a Portuguese traveller experienced in foreign merchandise, named Sebastian do Prado, visited Brazil, and was struck with the appearance of certain crystals used by the negroes as counters in playing at cards. On examination these crystals proved to be diamonds. Two years later the mines of Minas Geraes were opened, and it has been esti mated that, in the succeeding century and a half, the amount of Brazilian stones brought to market was no less than thirteen million carats. As usual in such cases, they were encountered by a trade cabal, and were at first frequently sent to India that they might obtain Indian prices; but their quality was eventually recognized as fully equal to that of the finest gems from the Deccan. The discovery, in 1829, of diamonds in the gold-washings of the Ural was due to the sagacity of Alexander von Humboldt. His observation of the close similarity between the alluvial beds of that region and those of the diamantiferous districts of Brazil, embol dened him to make a prediction which was no sooner published **"Golconda" is, properly speaking, not the name of a mine, but of a fortress near Hyderabad, where the treasures of the Nizam, and especially his/ diamond-wealth from Parteal, Raolconda, and Ellore are stored, than it was fulfilled. But the yield has hitherto proved but a nig gardly one. The diggings of South Africa are, however, of quite another order of importance, and may be expected to prove as significant for the natural history of the diamond as they are momentous for its commercial status. The existence of these precious stones in the districts watered by the Orange and Vaal Rivers had long been an obscure tradition in the colony, and in a mission-map of about 1750 the words "Here be diamonds" stand inscribed across the region now known as Griqua-land West. But it was not until 1867, that a certain Niekirk, a Dutch trader, and O'Reilly, an ostrichhunter, passing by the house of a boer named Jacobs, noted a singular pebble with which his children were playing. The stone was taken to Cape Town, purchased by Sir Philip Wodehouse for 5007., and sent, as the first Cape diamond, to the Paris Exhibition. The jewel known as the "Star of South Africa" (of 834 carats) was, two years later, brought by a Hottentot shepherd to the same Niekirk, who paid 400%, for it, and received the same day 12,000%. The riches of the famous "Du Toit's Pan" were brought to light by the discovery of diamonds in the mortar with which a Dutch farmer's house had been built. The place was shortly afterward, in the expressive colonial phrase, "rushed," and the peaceful owner beheld with dismay the devastation and disorder attendant upon the unlooked-for conversion of his Arcadia into an Eldorado. The produce of the South African mines is enormous, and the quality of the stones, which is frequently marred by a somewhat tawny complexion, is reported to be improving. Indeed, a twin "drop" from the Vaal River, skilfully mounted by Mr. Streeter, was declared by experts to be of Indian extraction. Vast profits have, of course, been realized. One gentleman's "claim" is said to have cleared in two years 45,000l. The New Rush Mine alone yields 30007. a day. In 1875, when the diggers had been at work only four years, gems to the value of 34 millions sterling had been extracted from it. The packets of diamonds sent by post-bag from Kimberley to Cape Town in 1876 weighed 773 pounds, and were worth 1,414,5901. Nor does there seem to be any present prospect of the supply coming to an end. On the contrary, there is every reason to believe that only a very small portion of the diamantiferous regions of South Africa has yet been explored. The remarkable peculiarities of the diamond have long made it a special object of curiosity to the ignorant, and of inquiry to the scientific. In some of its qualities it is pre-eminent, in others unique. No substance in nature can compete with it in hardness. That is to say, its uttermost particles are clasped together in an embrace so close as to defy the ordinary means of disintegration. ६ A crystal whose surface can be scratched by any other body what soever is most assuredly not a diamond.* The extraordinary brilliancy of this gem is due to the internal reflections produced by its high refractive power. Imprisoned, as it were, within its substance, the light, like Proteus, in the bands of Aristæus, seeks escape in transformation, thus flashing back to the eye, Its sevenfold shaft of mystic fire untwined, in all the varying radiance of prismatic lustre. The phosphorescence of the diamond-in other words, its faculty of shining in the dark after a short exposure to sunlight--has long been noted and won dered at, but has never been explained. For the assertion that its ultimate atoms are set vibrating by the impulse communicated to them from the blue rays of the spectrum (those principally active in producing the phenomenon), is not an explanation, but anotliers mode of stating the fact. The same effect can be produced by the application of mild heat or slight friction, and some specimens emit light when excited by electricity. The electrical susceptibility of this stone was known to the ancients, although they were probably not aware that mere change of temperature sufficed to call it into operation. But the quality which most markedly distinguishes the diamond from all other gems, is its combustibility. This peculiarity is of comparatively recent discovery. A conjecture of Boetius de Boot, and an inconclusive attempt on the part of Robert Boyle, led the way to the celebrated experiment of the Florentine Academy in 1694, when a diamond, placed at the focus of a large concave mirror exposed to the rays of the sun, was ignited and consumed before the eyes of Cosmo III. and his court. The question as to the chemical composition of the gem was thereby rendered of compar. atively easy solution. Lavoisier, in 1775, showed that the product of combustion was carbonic acid gas. Sir Humphry Davy proved this substance to be the sole product. Mr. Smithson Tennant demonstrated that equal weights of diamond and charcoal yielded, in combination with oxygen, precisely equal quantities of carbonic acid. The proof was thus complete that diamond is nothing but crystallized carbon; a fact not the less surprising that is has become familiar. This extreme simplicity of constitution seemed irresistibly to invite, and long successfully baffled the artificial production of the gem. Carbon is one of the most intractable bodies in nature. Its " An exception should perhaps be made in favor of so-called borou diamonds," which are said to have the power of scratching even the real gem. The element called boron," which has some analogy with carbon, is not found in nature in the crystalline form, but has been so obtained by MM. Wöhler and Déville, by heating aluminium with boracic acid. singular flexibility in some directions is compensated by an equally singular rigidity in others. At no attainable temperature can it be either liquefied or vaporized. No acid attacks it. It is wholly iusoluble in water, and, under ordinary conditions, in every other known substance. The problem then how to obtain crystals of an element which can neither be melted, volatilized, nor dissolved,” was evidently one of exceptional difficulty. An obvious prelimi nary inquiry was as to the method pursued by nature for the attain. ment of this end. By what process were diamonds formed in the vast primeval laboratory? On this point the widest possible diver gences of opinion have existed, and still exists. Some ascribe to them a vegetable, some an animal, some a mineral origin. On one side it is maintained that a high degree of heat was necessary for their formation. On the other it is asserted that nothing regarding their origin is certain except that they were produced at a comparatively low temperature. One writer invokes the vague but potent agency of electricity. Another points to the antique association of these problematical crystals with "thunderbolts. A third brings to bear the unimaginable pressure of miles of superincumbent strata. From the frequency of their occurrence in company with gold, the ancients concluded diamonds to be the "flower," or sublimation of the finest particles of that precious metal. By a somewhat closer process of reasoning, founded on his observation of the high refractive power of this gem, as compared with its specific gravity, Newton was led to the inference that it was an unetuous substance coagulated.' And his authority largely contributed to establish and maintain the doctrine of its organic origin. We believe, however, that a close consideration of the circumstances under which it is actually found in nature leads to a directly opposite conclusion. 39 46 66 The first fact to be noted regarding the native haunts of the diamond is that it occurs almost exclusively in alluvial deposits. Indeed, the early Brazilian explorers sought for it only in riverbeds, turning the stream, and digging through the superficial clay to the quartz gravel or cascalho beneath, where the gem was usually discovered in company with gold dust, garnets, spinel, emery, diaspore, and other rare minerals. From this connection came the use of the phrases "pure water,' finest water," etc., to denote the quality of the stones. Subsequently, the workings were carried on with equal success in dry deposits, which were, however, everywhere of the same general character. Similar conditions prevail in India, Australia, at the Cape, and in the Ural Mountains. It is evident that the gem is here met with, not in the character of a denizen, but of a pilgrim. The home where it was born and bred must be sought elsewhere. On further inquiry, it appears that the water-borne fragments with which it is associated are the |