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2C5
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PRECIOUS STONES.
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and uncertainty of the business. The extent and resources
of these diamond-fields are still problems, but as far as they have been explored, there is little to fear from exhaustion for many generations to come ; while, on the other hand, there is small probability that the yield will ever be so enormous as to degrade this peerless gem to a common rank among ornamental stones. Nature, it has been said, has guarded the diamond with special care, by placing it in regions difficult of access, or in situations taxing the ingenuity and endurance of man to get possession of it. Australia. — The discovery of Australian diamonds was
made as early as i860, but operations for mining did not begin until nine years later, under the management of the Australian Diamond Miners' Company ; the principal mines are the Bingera and the Mudgee. The mines of the Bingera district, four hundred miles north of Sidney, on the Big River, were discovered in 1867, by gold diggers, as it generally happens the diamond is found with or near this precious metal ; no stones were found in the rivers except where the soil from the gold washings had been discharged. The Bingera diamonds occur either in the Devonian or the Carboniferous strata, scattered from a few feet below the surface to nearly seventy feet in depth. The Australian diamonds are sparsely scattered, and are
generally of a small size, the largest not often surpassing eight carats. The first diamond found in Australia, a stone weighing
three-fourths of a carat, is exhibited in the Museum of Practical Geology, London. Russia. — In the early part of the present century, the
attention of geologists was directed to eastern Russia as a probable diamond region on account of its resemblance, in |
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