Record. lix 



reputation ; but in the minds of his colleagues of the Uni- 

 versity and of the Academy, his truest claim to distinc- 

 tion lies in the exceptional qualities of heart and charac- 

 ter, which endeared him to his friends, which were a con- 

 stant inspiration to all who came within the sphere of his 

 influence and of which the memory constitutes a living 

 monument in his honor. 



The Academy of Science of St. Louis places this record 

 in its archives as a brief token of respect and as an ex- 

 pression of its sense of the severe loss which the Academy 

 and the world has sustained in his death. 



(Signed) Launcelot W. Andrews, 

 Chas. D. Stevens, 

 H. A. Wheeler, 



Committee. 



Professor W. E. McCourt gave an illustrated lecture 

 on ''Diamonds in Arkansas." 



Professor McCourt first gave a general account of the properties of 

 the diamond, and an account of some of the famous diamonds of 

 history. Then the general commercial occurrences of the diamond 

 were considered — namely, India, Brazil and Africa, whence the world's 

 supply of diamonds has largely come. Diamonds have also occurred 

 in the United States, but nowhere in very large quantities. 



In 1906, however, diamonds were found derived from a parent 

 rock in Pike County, Arkansas, near the town of Murfreesboro. The 

 presence of the rock in this region, similar to rock in which dia- 

 monds were found in Africa, has been known for some time, and 

 the State Survey has mapped one of the areas. The igneous rock 

 is a peridotite which has been pushed up through the Carboniferous 

 and Cretaceous quartzites and sandstones, and in places is covered 

 by beds of Post-Tertiary and Quaternary formations. But there does 

 not seem to have been any metamorphism accompanying the intrusion 

 of this material. This peridotite is a dark colored, basic, igneous rock 

 which contains olivine, augite, magnetite, mica and perofskite. In 

 some places the rock is exceedingly hard and dense, but in others it 

 has weathered to a yellowish and greenish soft material, to a depth 

 of from twenty to fifty feet. Covering the region to a depth of a 

 foot or so is a black gumbo soil which contains fragments of the hard 

 peridotites and the country rock. 



The work in this region has not been very extensive, but bore 

 holes have been made in several places, one reaching to a depth of 

 205 feet in the hard rock; several companies have located on the 

 area; and stones to the number of 600 have already been found. The 

 largest stone is six and a half carats. Some have been cut and are 



