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Brazilian Diamonds.
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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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