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74
The Diamond.
discovery has since been amply confirmed by many scientific observers in various parts of the world.
On dissolving the Arizona meteorites, by means of acids, the Diamond may be liberated from their imprison­ment in the iron, since they resist all solvent action. If, now, as pointed out by Sir W. Crookes, these masses of iron, as they lay exposed upon the ground had been gradually attacked by atmospheric agencies, and eaten away as so much rust, all the metal would have disappeared, while the Diamonds set free would have been found scattered over the soil, and might then have been naturally regarded as terrestrial minerals. Hence the startling suggestion is forced upon us that some of the Diamonds found in sands, gravels, and other superficial deposits on the surface of the earth, especially where only a single Diamond is now and then picked up—may, after all, have been originally dropped from the sky in the shape of meteoric matter, and be therefore literally a direct gift from Heaven !
DIAMOND.