by Jeffries," its value will be, in its present form, £
5,644,800. But no price at all can be set upon a stone which is still
in the rough state, and regarding the true character of which the
greatest uncertainty prevails.
Referring
to Mawe's statement that the stone may be a white topaz, it is well to
remember that the topaz, which consists of a fiuo-silicate mixed with
silicate of aluminium, is often very apt to be mistaken for the diamond
by unpractised eyes. This is es pecially the case with the colourless
stone known as the Goutte d'Ean, and even with the yellow
Brazilian variety, which, when skilfully cut, forms a very handsome
gem. The German Aulic-councillor, Beireis of Helmstadt, who died in
1809, possessed a stone of this sort, which to the last he believed to
be a diamond, although it was said to be as large as an ostrich's egg,
and to weight 6,400 carats. He kept it carefully locked up in
his cabinet, producing it only on rare occasions, and gave out that he
had received it in pledge from the Emperor of China. Nobody, of course,
believed this story, but the strange part of it was, that at his death,
the stone was found to have mysteriously disappeared. Its existence is
vouched for by the testimony of Göthe himself, who was one of the
privileged few to whom Beireis showed it. The owner may have possibly,
towards the end, discovered his mistake, and destroyed the stone,
either for a love of mystery, to which some minds are so prone, or else
to save his reputation, by preventing the true character of the gem
from becoming known. Some have supposed that this stone was not even a
topaz, but
