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THE BOOK OF DIAMONDS
The
Maton is uncut, and weighs 376 carats, so that if cut and polished it
would be reduced to at least 180 carats. So far as it is known the
diamond remains in possession of the governor of Batavia.
Fifty
small diamonds have been obtained in the Ural disÂtrict. Humboldt, one
of the greatest of naturalists, who has contributed more than any man
of modern times to the progress of physical science was born in Berlin
in 1769. He traveled extensively. In 1829 he, with Rose and others, was
sent out by the Emperor Nicholas to explore the Ural mountains and the
Caspian Sea. Its principal results were the scientific examination of
the beds which produce gold and platinum and the discovery of diamonds
in an extra-tropical region. These were the first European diamonds to
be found.
Diamonds
have been found in Shantung, China. About four miles east of the market
town of Li Chia Chuang, is a low, sandy ridge, extending south and
parallel with Ching Pu, the main road south, after it crosses the I Sui
River about eighteen miles southeast of Cheefoo. The diamonds are found
along this ridge for a distance of fully eight miles. The natives will
only look for them after rains, because they believe the rains bring
them, quite oblivious of the fact that the washings of the sands by the
following rain discovers them. They cannot be persuaded to dig and wash
the sand.
The stones are nearly all quite small. Occasionally, one as large as a pea or a hazel nut is picked up. The usual method
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