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Ch. 2: Adamas, Diamond

Ch. 2: Adamas, Diamond Page of 377 Ch. 2: Adamas, Diamond Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
ADAMÂS.
59
turned up in this lottery, in the shape of three stones of 120-3/8, 107, 87-1/2 carats respectively. The largest indubitable. stone ever yielded by Brazil is the ' Star of the South,' weighing as found 254 carats. The diamond-producing tract of country extends from Itambe, in'the Minas Geraes, to Sincora on the Eiver Paraguesa, Bahia, or between 20° 19' and 13° of south latitude. The washings are carried on in the beds of the numerous rivulets supplying the streams of the rivers Doce, Arasasky, Jaquitonita, and San Francesco. During the dry season which lasts from April to October, these rivulets are diverted from their courses, and the gravel—cascalhao—filling their beds, is dug out down to the· rock to a depth varying from 6 to 20 feet, and stored up by the side of the washing-sheds, to be examined during the rainy season. It is then washed in troughs, about half-a-hundredweight being operated upon at one time in each trough : a stream of water is turned in upon the gravel, which is stirred until the water runs off perfectly clear, when the fine gravel remaining is carefully searched for the Diamonds. Until lately the Diamond had never been traced to its matrix, but this has now been done, in at least two instances in Brazil. The writer above quoted says : " The first was in 1839, and the rock which contained it was described by M. P. Chasseau (' Bull, de l'Acad. Royale, Bruxelles,' viii. 331) as grès psammite, a sort of sandy freestone, the locality being the Serro di Santantonio di Grammagoa. The discoverers of the deposit took from it many Diamonds, as the rock was soft ; but deeper, it became harder, and consequently more difficult to work. As many as 2000 persons from all parts came to the place ; but they dug without order or plan, and, undermining the rock, part of it fell down. They still draw a profit from breaking the fragments, and extracting the Diamonds. We cannot say how long this was continued. M. Chasseau's
Ch. 2: Adamas, Diamond Page of 377 Ch. 2: Adamas, Diamond
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