There
is another item of importance, though it escapes general observation.
It is the quality of color. In fancies, the hues being deep, it is more
noticeable and therefore regarded. A fine canary is of a clean bright
yellow like the feathers of the bird after which it is named.
Frequently the yellow is tainted by a greenish cast; many have a dark,
murky quality, and are really very deep by-waters. Inferior browns are
of an ashen or blackish character. Of the other colors in which the
diamond occurs, greens and orange are generally good, as the
apple-green, if less rare and desirable than the emerald-green, is
nevertheless very beautiful, and orange is always so. Absinthe-green
diamonds are sometimes very pleasing, though stones of this color are
apt to have an oily appearance like some zircons, in which case the
center is dark. Occasionally these show wide variations of color under
different lights; one in New York being absinthe-green, golden, brown,
and red, according to the light in which it is seen. In red, the
diamond never approaches the magnificence of the ruby, and in sapphire
blue it is seldom equal to a good Ceylon sapphire even. The famous Hope
diamond would be considered quite inferior as a sapphire.
In
the variously tinted white stones, and the untinted white, quality of
color is more elusive. The white will be found by comparison to be
blackish, steely, or snowy. The latter is characteristic of river
stones, especially the Indian when they are white, and is in the
opinion of some, the superior of all, because it is the cleanest and
purest. There is something intensely fascinating about one of these
pure white stones, and it is worthy of remark, that members of families
which have for
