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DIAMONDS.
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these
stones in the very mines they are working, but will, in cases of
emergency, swallow them ! It is said that, before the British supremacy
became paramount in these parts, delinquents of this description have
suffered death rather than confess their having stolen the gems, which
have afterwards been discovered in the ashes of their remains.
The
early accounts by Franklin and Jacquemont have been, perhaps, to some
extent supplanted by that by M. Rousselet. Captain Burton, in his
already-mentioned Paper, gives the following abstract with some remarks
of his own. While quoting from Captain Burton, I cannot omit to say
that it is to be regretted that he should not have referred to the
official geological publications on the subject. Had he done so he
would have seen that very much more has been accomplished with regard
to fixing the horizon of the matrix and its distribution than he was
led to suppose, and, moreover, he would not have then rehabilitated
several old theories which have been shown to be erroneous.
M.
Louis Rousselet (" L'Inde des Rajahs." Paris: Hachette. 1875), in his
splendid volume, pp. 440, 443, gives an illustration, and an account of
the world-famous mines of Panna (the Panasca of Ptolemy ?), a little
kingdom of Eastern Bandelkhand erected in 1809. The Raja sent a
Jemadar to show him the diggings, which arc about twenty minutes' walk
from the town. The site is a small plateau covered with pebble heaps,
and at the foot of a rise somewhat higher than usual yawns the pit,
about 12 or 15 metres in diameter by 20 deep.
It is found in alluvial grounds, divided into horizontal strata, debris of gneiss and carbonates,* averaging 30
*
What is intended to be conveyed by the term "carbonates" I cannot say,
since, other than diamonds, there are no traces of carbon in these
rocks.
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