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THE BOOK OF DIAMONDS
the
deposits and the crude methods of working, it has steadily declined.
The diamond mines of Borneo, which supply about 3,000 carats annually,
are located in the westÂern part of the island.
Peninsular India was the early known source of diamonds for about twelve hundred years. About 600 a.d. diamonds were discovered in Borneo.
"A diamond1
of 367 carats, celebrated for the superior quality of its stone, was
found at Laudak (Borneo) and is said to be still in the hands of the
chief of Pontiana. This stone is shaped like an egg with an indented
hollow in the smaller end, and should be worth at least 3,500,000
dollars. One is glad to think of at least one of the great eastern
diamonds being preserved by a native chief, since so many of their
brilliant treasures have gone to grace the aliens."
Diamond
is many times more rare than gold. If gold occurs one part in 250,000,
it can scarcely be worked with profit, while the diamond can be worked
to advantage when found only one part in 10,000,000.
In
1905 India reported 3,095 carats, valued at 5,160 pounds sterling. Only
a hundred carats a year now come from the Indian mines, which
contributed twelve million carats to the world during its twenty
centuries of life.
Diamonds
of large size have always been extremely rare even in India itself.
Travinier asserts as late as 1550 that the largest diamond ever found
weighed only from ten to twelve carats. This last statement as to size
seems to be questioned.
1 Anagnos, J. R., A Brief Account oi the Most Celebrated Diamonds, p. 25. 24
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