Ch. 1: Early History of Diamonds

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	THE EARLY HISTORY OF DIAMONDS confined in fused iron, and diamond will not burn without a free supply of oxygen, the argument appears invalid." ¹ It is noticeable that all diamond fields of importance are within 30 ° north or south of the equator. They are situated, therefore, where vegetation is or has been extremely luxurious. It seems evident that the chimneys of the South African diamond fields were not vents of sudden, local, igneous volcanic eruption. The crater formation seems to be absent, and there seems to be no overflow of scattered ashes and lava about the mouth of any one of them. The plateau has apparently been raised to, or a little above, the surface of the surrounding land by a series of uplifts. From the nature of these conditions of the surrounding reef it would seem that dykes were not made by a volcanic eruption. What is the natural origin, no one can say with any positive assurance; apparently diamonds were fused in the earth from iron or from silicon rocks under great heat and pressure, but that happened so long ago that no trace remains of the process by which they were formed. "A natural solvent for carbon with sufficient heat to cause the necessary chemical reaction, and pressure, is probably Nature's method of crystallizing carbon." ² Diamonds are most often found in alluvial soil; sand and gravel along the beds of streams or on the dried shores of old seas where they were deposited after rains washed them out of the hills, in which they first appeared. It is a well known fact that in all of the South African ¹ Cartell, W. R., The Diamond, p. 383. 2 Cartell, W. R., Ibid., p. 389. 7

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