liA Mr Breton on the Diamond Workings 



Art. XXVIII. — Account of the Diamond Workings and Dia- 

 monds of S^imbhulpore.* By Peter Breton, Esq. Sur- 

 geon, Superintendant of the School of Native Doctors at 

 Calcutta. 



The districts of Chota, Magpore, and Sirgoojah, are not 

 marked for their mineral productions, but Sumbhulpore-f- has 

 been, from time immemorial, distinguished for its production 

 of the finest oriental diamonds in the known world. They 

 are occasionally found in the bed of the Mahanuddee, and at 

 the mouths of other rivers which terminate in it. The fol- 

 lowing is an extract from the observations of a gentleman, 

 whose source of information on this interesting subject was 

 the best that could be obtained in Sumbhulpore. 



" The Mahanuddee is navigable for six months in the year, 

 though not without obstructions and difficulties for boats of 

 three to four hundred Maund's burthen, from the sea to Soo- 

 reenarain, which cannot be less than 380 miles, and for small- 

 er vessels as far as Sumbhulpore for ten months. Diamonds 

 of various sizes, and of the first quality, are occasionally found 

 at the mouths of the rivers Maund, Keloo, Eeb, and others, 

 which all have their sources in the mountainous parts of 

 Koorba, Sirgoojah, Raegurh, Jushpoor, and Gangpoor, and 

 fall into the Mahanuddee on its left bank. They are also picked 

 up after the termination of the rains amongst the mud and 

 sand deposited on the beds of islands on the left bank, where 

 the stream, being resisted, makes a sharp turn, by persons of 

 a peculiar class, whose occupation it is to search for them. 

 I cannot learn that diamonds have ever been found on the 

 right bank of the Mahanuddee, or on the left bank above its 

 confluence with the Maund at Chunderpore, or below Soan- 

 pore. It would appear, therefore, that they are washed down 

 from the sides of the streams which flow from north to south 

 through the mountainous and almost inaccessible track which oc- 

 cupies in Arrowsmith"'s Map, the 83d and 84th degrees of east 

 longitude, and 21st and 22d degrees of north latitude. This 



• This curious paper is abridged from the Transactions of the Medical 

 and Physical Society of Calcutta, vol. ii. p. 261. 



t The valley of Sumbhulpore is 410 feet above the sea. 



