56 A Book of Precious Stones
pointed
out that the ground sent was sorted ground, while that upon which
Kimberley statistics are based was not. Mr. Williams stated:
The
average value of the diamonds per carat for eleven months was 27s. 4d.
The quality of the diamonds in the Pretoria District is poor, the
percentage of bort and rubbish being abnormally great. Valued on the
same basis, diamonds from the Pretoria District are worth only about
fifty-four per cent, of those from De Beers and Kimberley mines.
It
is always the unexpected that happens in diamond-seeking. The premises
of Mr. Williams and the other experts, who may from personal interest
have been subconsciously inclined to make comparisons between Kimberley
and Transvaal mines unfavourable to the latter, however sound and
scientific, held forth small encouragement to expect great things from
the new Premier mines; which, after all, have produced a single gem
that outshines anything that the Kimberley mines ever produced.
Until
its sun was eclipsed by the revelation of the Cullinan Diamond, the
largest diamond which the earth has given to man was the Excelsior,
which was ultimately named the Jubilee in honour of the celebration of
the sixtieth
