94 PRECIOUS STONES
hundred
pounds of clay as follows: Kimberley, one and one-fourth to one and
one-half carats; De Beers, one and one-fifth to one and one-third
carats; Du Toits Pan, one-sixth to one-fifth carat; Bultfontein,
one-fifth to one-third carat.
Diamonds
from the river diggings, Jagersfontein and Du Toits Pan are said to be
harder than those from the Kimberley, De Beers, and Bultfontein.
In
olden times the price of diamonds and other precious stones, compared
with the value of money, was high. Comparatively few were found, and
though the number of those able to buy and own them was much smaller
than now, they were of a class who gratified desire without regard to
price, and set great store on gems as evidences of power and affluence.
The rulers of Oriental lands valued the jewels found in their countries
so highly, that fine gems cost more in Colombo than in London. This
condition prevails to-day, but it arises to some extent from the fact
that the rough and native cut stones are regularly collected by Western
buyers and shipped to London, whereas the stock in the hands of natives
is uncertain and variable. Prices depend on the conditions of the
moment, and are influenced by the rank and wealth of the buyers.
Years
ago the payment of interest on the Brazilian state debt in diamonds by
Dom Pedro so glutted the market in London that the price fell nearly
one-half. In 1838 the price rose, but the French Revolution in 1848
broke it again. From that year until the discovery of diamonds in
Africa the price rose steadily. The immense amount of new money thrown
upon the world by the Civil War in America resulted in a further rise
of about twenty-five per cent. The Franco-German War sent it up another
ten per cent., and the effect of all this newly acquired money in the
world produced a further rise, during the two years succeeding, of
probably fifteen to twenty per cent. more. The panic of 1873 in
America, and a growing knowledge of the tremendous
