weighed
in the rough four hundred and fifty-seven and one-half carats. (Plate
XVIII.) Cutting reduced the weight to one hundred and eighty carats,
and gave a very fine colorless brilliant. (Plate XVII.)
A
crystal weighing four hundred and twenty-eight and one-half carats was
found March 28, 1880, in the De Beers mine, and cut to two hundred and
eighty-eight and one-half carats. (Max Bauer.) Streeter calls this the
" Victoria," and gives the weight as two hundred and twenty-eight and
one-half carats. It is a yellowish stone, and when found was an
octahedral crystal.
The
largest diamond known is the " Jagersfontein Excelsior," found by a
Kaffir on June 30, 1893. It is a beautiful blue-white crystal, the
value of which cannot well be estimated. Its weight is nine hundred
and seventy-one and three-fourths carats. (Plate XVIII.)
The
" Porter Rhodes," found in Kimberly February 12, 1880, is probably one
of the finest cape stones. It is a very fine blue-white diamond,
variously reported to weigh from one hundred and fifty to one hundred
and sixty carats. (Streeter says one hundred and fifty carats.)
One
of the largest and finest orange-colored diamonds known, and the
largest of any kind in America, is the " Tiffany" diamond, of one
hundred and twenty-five and one-half carats. (Plate XIX.) It is a cape
stone and was imported by Tiffany and Co., of New York.
The
largest alexandrite known weighs sixty-three and three-eighths carats.
It was found in Ceylon. By day it is a slightly yellowish grass-green,
and by artificial light a pale red.
A
smaller but finer stone, weighing twenty-eight and twenty-three
thirty-seconds carats, was also found in Ceylon. The color by day is a
beautiful soft green, and by gas-light a fine columbine red.
There is a cat's-eye in the Hope collection, South Ken-
