The grinding and polishing are done by diamond dust mixed with oil spread on the upper surface of a grooved flat steel wheel revolving horizontally. The diamond, having been set in fusible solder, is firmly pressed against the surface of the wheel by a small projecting arm and clamp. When one facet has been finished, the diamond is removed from the solder and reset for grinding another facet. Thus the workman continues until the grinding and polishing are completed. Infinite patience and steadiness of nerve, as well as steadiness of hand, are required for such delicate and exact work. Sometimes two uncut stones are cemented into the ends of two sticks. Then the operator, using these sticks as handles, presses the stones against each other with a rubbing motion, the surface of the stones being coated over with diamond dust and oil to accelerate the process. The last cutting of the celebrated Kohinoor diamond cost forty thousand dollars. One may understand, therefore, that the expense of cutting a large diamond adds materially to its cost. The diamond-cutting industry is confined chiefly to Amsterdam, where the work employs several thousand persons, mostly Hebrews, the craft having been handed down from father to son through several generations. Much fine cutting is now done in New York also. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 4: The term pan is a name applied to a basin or pool in which water collects during the rainy season.] [Footnote 5: Fontein is a word of Dutch origin meaning fountain or spring. In this hot and semi-arid country a pan or fontein was a necessity to the Boer farmer, whose chief dependence was on his sheep and cattle. Hence he was wont to settle near where water could be easily obtained.] PART II OCEANIA CHAPTER XXII THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC Not until four hundred years ago did the body of water now named the Pacific Ocean become known to the people of Europe. A vague knowledge of a sea that washed the eastern shores of Cathay, or China, was gained from the reports of the famous Venetian traveller, Marco Polo. After spending several years in the Orient, Polo returned home in 1295, giving such marvellous accounts of the countries visited and things seen that his stories were but half believed. In 1531, Balboa, a Spanish explorer stationed at Darien, now Colon, hearing rumors that a great ocean lay to the opposite side, determined to test the truth of the report. Taking with him about three hundred men, he laboriously worked his way through the jungles of the isthmus; and on reaching the top of the divide beheld for the first time the Pacific Ocean. He then hastened forward, and as he reached the shore he waded into the water and took possession of it in the name of his sovereign. He named it the South Sea.