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54
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DIAMONDS,
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metres
; at the bottom is the diamond rock, a mixture of silex and quartz in a
gangue of red earth (clay ?). The naked miners descend by an inclined
plane, and work knee deep in water, which the noria, or Persian
wheel, turned by four bullocks, is insufficient to drain ; they heap
the muddy mixture into small baskets, which are drawn up by ropes,
whilst a few are carried by coolies. The dirt is placed upon stone
slabs sheltered by a shed ; the produce is carefully washed, and the
silicious residuum is transferred to a marble table for examination.
The workmen, each with his overseer, examine the stones one by one,
throwing back the refuse into a basket. It is a work of skill on the
part of both men, as it must be done with a certain rapidity, and the
rough diamond is not easily distinguished from the silex, quartz,
jasper, limestone, corundum, &c.
Tradition
reports that the first diamonds of fabulous size were thus found, and
the system of pits was perpetuated ; when one is exhausted it is
filled up and another is opened up hard by—a deplorable system, as 100
cubic metres must be displaced to examine one—and around each well a
surface of twenty times the area is rendered xiseless. Moreover, much
time is lost by the imperfect way of sinking the shaft, which sometimes
does not strike the stone.
This
diamond stratum extends more than 20 kilometres to the north-east of
Panna. The most important diggings are those of the capital of Myra,
Etawa, Kama-riya, Brijpur and Baraghari. The mean annual produce ranges
between ,£40,000 and ,£60,000—(M. Rousselet himself says 1,500,000 to
2,000,000 francs)—a trifling sum, as the stones are the most prized in
the world and sell for a high price in the country.
They
are pure and full of fire ; the colour varies from the purest white to
black with the intermediate shades, milky, rose, yellow, green, and
brown. Some have been found reaching twenty carats, and the Myra mine
yielded one of eighty-three which belonged to the Crown jewels of
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