Sec. II, Ch. 5: The Brazilian Diamond

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	112	Brazilian Diamonds.

	Washing troughs (canoes) are placed side by side, and the overseer has a raised seat, so as to be able to observe all the negroes at work. Every trough has its little stream of water, and a negro keeps the contents in constant motion until the mud has been washed away and the water is quite clear. Then the sand and fine gravel are taken in the hand and searched for Diamonds. If one is found, the negro stands upright and knocks as a signal for the overseer, who takes the Diamond from him, and lays it in a vessel filled with water, which hangs in the middle of the shed. When the day's work is over, the contents of this vessel are taken by the overseer, and their weight entered in a book. Large Diamonds are very rarely found. It has been estimated that in ten thousand specimens rarely more than one weighing twenty carats is met with, while possibly eight thousand of one carat, or less, may be discovered. At the works of the Jequetinhonha River, during a year's labour, only two or three stones have been found varying from seventeen to twenty carats, and at the whole of the works in Brazil, for the space of two years, not more than one of thirty carats was found. In 1851 a Diamond weighing 120-3/8 carats was discovered at the source of the Patrocinho River, in the province of Minas-Geräes. Somewhat later, on the Rio-das-Velhas, the labourers found a stone of 107 carats weight, and in Chapada one of 87-1/2 carats. The largest, however, which has been discovered in Brazil is that called the " Star of the South," which was found in 1853, at Bogagem, in the Province of Minas-Geräes, and weighed 254-1/2 carats before it was cut. There are many laws and regulations in Brazil to prevent the negroes concealing and smuggling Diamonds. As a means of encouraging honesty, if a negro finds a large

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