Leisure hours among the gemsHamlin, Augustus C. (Augustus Choate)
Science
Leisure hours among the gems
Hamlin, Augustus C. (Augustus Choate)
Gems; Precious stones
None of these diamond fields have been examined systematically by
experienced miners with a view to their development, and in fact no
definite idea of their limit or their value can be given. But we have
the impression that they are far more extensive than has been imagined
by mineralogists. The returning gem-seekers who have been educated
in the diamond mines of South Africa may investigate ere long these
unknown districts and settle the question beyond further inquiry. In
California, a few diamonds are reported to have been found here and
there among the gold fields, but nothing like a gem placer has yet
been revealed. The geological formations of Arizona and New Mexico are
more promising than any part of the United States, and explorations
may disclose extensive and valuable gem deposits in those regions.
The originators of the famous diamond swindle in Arizona chose their
locality with more than ordinary sagacity.
The account of this daring scheme reads more like romance than reality,
and it was more than ordinary boldness that prompted the perpetrators
to visit foreign lands, purchase quantities of rough diamonds and then
plant them in a distant, desolate, and hostile country to entrap the
wary speculator. The success of this piracy was fortunately checked
by the sagacity of one of the United States geologists exploring the
adjacent territory, who quickly disclosed the fraud, but not in time
to prevent the swindlers from pocketing large sums of money from
speculators in California.
Pliny mentioned Arabia as one of the localities of the gem; but modern
investigators believe that he founded his views on the facts of the
diamonds being obtained from Arabian merchants, and that they really
came from other countries.
This probably is the true version of the commerce of the Arabians
in those days; but we see no objection to the belief that Arabia
may have been a diamond-bearing country in early times, and may
possess undeveloped fields at the present day. Northern Africa was
also asserted to be diamond yielding, and modern investigators have
established the truth of the assertion.
In the year 1867 the attention of gem-seekers was turned to vague
reports of the discovery of rich diamond fields in South Africa, and
the pages of history were examined closely to prove that in ancient
times this continent was known as a diamond country. It is undoubtedly
true that Africa yielded diamonds to the ancients, for within thirty
years several have been found in Algiers, and are now preserved in
the collections of Paris. They were discovered in the auriferous
sands of the river Goumal, in the Province of Constantine, by natives
while washing for gold. They were small in size but of unmistakable
character. This discovery strengthens the ancient report of the
Carthaginians’ procuring the gems from the Etrurians, who brought them
from the interior of Africa.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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