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VI. THE STAR OF THE SOUTH.
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Found
by a Negress.—A stone of singular beauty.—Sold for £3,000, ultimately
to realise £80,000.—A lovely tint.— The lion of two International
Exhibitions, it is afterwards sent to India. — Purchased by the ruler
of Baroda. — The Prince's other Treasures.— Diamond Dust
poisoning.—Nemesis.
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YING
west of the mountains of San do Espinaco is a vast plain. Here the
river Velhas has its source, and the New World's largest diamond its
origin. It was picked up in July, 1853, by a negress at work in the
mines of the province of Minas-Geraes, Brazil.* The diamond, when
found, presented the general form of a rhombic dodecahedron with very
obtuse angles, and twenty-four natural facets, besides certain faint
streaks, pointing at a .possible octahedric cleavage. In one of the
facets there appeared a somewhat deep depression, in which was formerly
inserted an octahedral crystal, which from other
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