Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, November 1899: Volume LVI, No. 1Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, November 1899: Volume LVI, No. 1
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
As these stones were found in the deposits of "drift" which were left
by the ice of the Glacial period, it was clear that they had been
brought to their resting places by the ice itself. The map reveals
the additional fact, and one of the greatest significance, that all
these diamonds were found in the so-called "kettle moraine." This
moraine or ridge was the dumping ground of the ice for its burden of
bowlders, gravel, and clay at the time of its later invasion, and hence
indicates the boundaries of the territory over which the ice mass was
then extended. In view of the fact that two of the three stones found
had remained in the hands of the farming population, without coming
to the knowledge of the world, for periods of eleven and seven years
respectively, it seems most probable that others have been found,
though not identified as diamonds, and for this reason are doubtless
still to be found in many cases in association with other local
"curios" on the clock shelves of country farmhouses in the vicinity
of the "kettle moraine." The writer felt warranted in predicting, in
1894, that other diamonds would occasionally be brought to light in the
"kettle moraine," though the great extent of this moraine left little
room for hope that more than one or two would be found at any one point
of it.
[Illustration: THREE VIEWS OF THE SAUKVILLE DIAMOND (six carats);
enlarged about three diameters. (Owned by Bunde and Upmeyer, Milwaukee.)
We are indebted to the courtesy of Bunde and Upmeyer, of Milwaukee, for
the illustrations showing the Burlington and Saukville diamonds.]
In the time that has since elapsed diamonds have been found at the rate
of about one a year, though not, so far as I am aware, in any case
as the result of search. In Wisconsin have been found the Saukville
diamond, a beautiful white stone of six carats' weight, and also the
Burlington stone, having a weight of a little over two carats. The
former had been for more than sixteen years in the possession of the
finder before he learned of its value. In Michigan has been found the
Dowagiac stone, of about eleven carats' weight, and only very recently
a diamond weighing six carats and of exceptionally fine "water" has
come to light at Milford, near Cincinnati. This augmentation of the
number of localities, and the nearness of all to the "kettle moraines,"
leaves little room for doubt that the diamonds were conveyed by the ice
at the time of its later invasion of the country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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