116                          Brazilian Diamonds.
	market. The alternative of sending only finer specimens to the practical exclusion of small stones, if they intended seriously to enter into competition with Cape gems, was a matter of anxious concern to them, not because the Brazilian Diamonds had deteriorated in beauty or in quality, but because the exorbitant prices at which they had been offered for sale could no longer be maintained. It is a well known fact that, owing to the increasing scarcity of stones, the working of the Brazilian mines gradually became barely remunerative; and at the present time it hardly pays to work for Diamonds in Brazil.