to
be of sufficiently deep color to class as fancies. Some of the crystals
have cavities which look like pumice stone. Surface impressions of
other minerals in the natural facets are of frequent occurrence, many
of them resembling the form of quartz crystals. Stones that will cut
to fancy diamonds like those of Borneo and the Dutoitspan mine of the
Kimberley group, are rare.
Diamonds
of large size are seldom found in Brazil. Few have been found worthy of
mention when compared with the numerous large crystals of Africa. The
largest on record was found in Minas Geraes and weighed 2543/2 carats
or about one-twelfth of the weight of the Cullinan and a little over a
quarter of the size of the Excelsior. Since, one of 1383/2 carats was
found on the Rio Abaete; one of 120^ at Bagagem and one of 107 carats
at Tabacos on the Rio das Velhas. Most of the crystals run from 34 to
34 carat. Though published reports from the Brazilian fields have
always been untrustworthy, owing to the prevalence of smuggling, they
give some indication of general conditions. According to the
declarations made, only 80 stones of one oitava (1734 carats) and over,
were found in the fifty years prior to 1830. In the best years of
Diamantina, two or three stones only of 16 to 20 carats each were
declared annually out of ten thousand.
The
Pardo fields are said to be very unhealthy, but in the mountains of the
Paraguassu and Minas Geraes districts, a foreigner, if careful, may
escape the diseases of the lower lands. J. C. Branner claims that the
catinga-covered highlands of Bahia, though hot, are as healthful as any
in the world. The richest fields of Bahia were on the east side of
Serra do Sincora where the Paraguassu
