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PRECIOUS STONES.
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discovered, (1905) at Johannesburg, the largest Diamond known in the world, the ':
Cullinan," found by Mr. F. Wells, on the Premier Mine, near Pretoria.
It weighs three thousand, and twenty-four carats, being of splendid
quality, and singularly free from defects. This magnificent Stone was
safely transported to England, and deposited in the strong room of the
South African Standard Bank. It was insured for five hundred thousand
pounds, and is valued at a million pounds sterling. The ':
Great Mogul," or " Agra " Diamond, was discovered about the middle of
the seventeenth century. This Stone was taken at the Battle of Agra
(1626), and stolen from the King of Delhi, at the time of the Indian
Mutiny. It somehow reached England, and was sold at Christie's in
February, 1905, for five thousand, and one hundred pounds. Report has
said that the Agra Diamond was Smuggled out of India by being placed
within a horse-ball, which a horse was made to swallow. As to the "
Regent," or " Pitt," Diamond, this was bought by Pitt, the Governor of
Fort Saint George, in Golcondah, for one hundred and thirty-five
thousand pounds, from Jamel-Chund, a Hindoo Merchant, who was said to
have stolen it :—
" Asleep, and naked as the Indian lay, An honest factor stole the gem away."
The
Koh-i-noor, or " Mountain of Light," is the eighth, or smallest, of the
Paragon Diamonds, (all Diamonds weighing above a hundred carats being
styled " Paragon.") This was originally the largest Diamond known up
to that time, weighing, uncut, nine hundred carats. It belonged at
first to the Great Mogul.
Since the'' Mountain of Light'' came into the possession
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