Panna
may have been roasted by the ignition of coal seams, which, he
believed, existed below. He then remarks :—" It is fully proved, I
think, from the experiments of Sir David Brewster, that the diamond
has once been in a soft state, like amber, opal, or the tabashir.
Minute cavities, surrounded by a compressed structure analogous to
those in the Laske diamond, are seen in several specimens of the Indian
gem which have been brought me by the diamond merchants." He appears to
be disposed to favour the native idea that the diamond is reproduced in
the soil. " The old miners stated to me that a term of fifteen or
twenty years was requisite for the reproduction of the gem." They were
in this belief led to re-wash old tailings, and accounted for the fact
of the diamonds found in them being so small by saying that they had
not had time to grow larger. The same idea was favoured by Dr. Heyne.
An unbeliever in this hypothesis would be inclined to suggest that the
smallness of the diamonds accounted for their • having eluded the
searchers in the first washings. Indeed, Franklin mentions that some of
the miners he spoke to said that diamonds escaped notice in the first
washings owing to their being encrusted with dirt.
Kadapah, or Cuddapah, District.
Within
the limits of the Kadapah district the principal localities where
diamonds have been worked for are, according to Mr. King, Cunnapurtee
and Wobla-pully, or Obalumpally, near Chennur, on opposite banks of the
Pennair river and Lamdur and Pinchet-gapadu, west of Chennur.
