Sec. II, Ch. 3: The Australian Diamond

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	CHAPTER III. AUSTRALIAN DIAMONDS.

	LTHOUGH three, at least, of our Australian Colonies have yielded Diamonds, it is only in New South Wales that they have been found in sufficient quantity to invite systematic exploration. As far back as the year 1851, Mr. E. H. Hargraves, in a Report dated from Guyong, referred to some specimens of gold, and to a number of gems, including what he called, rather vaguely, " a small one of the Diamond kind," found in Reedy Creek, near Bathurst. Mr. Stutchbury, the Government geologist, also reported in 1851, that he had seen a finely crystallized Diamond from the Turon River. But it was especially the late Rev. B. W. Clarke, a gentleman well-known for his researches in Australian geology, who first directed public attention to the Diamonds of New South Wales. Four specimens had been brought to him from the Mâcquarie River, near Suttor's Bar, in September, 1859, anoV a fifth, the following month, from Burrendong. In the meantime he had received Diamonds from Pyramul and Calabash Creeks. These discoveries were considered by Mr. Clarke so significant, that he wrote a description of the occurrence, boldly heading it with the startling title, "New South Wales a Diamond country !" This announcement was not commercially justified till seven or eight years later, when the gold rush occurred at Warburton, *Australia*, better known as Two-mile flat, on the Cudgegong River, about nineteen miles

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