58 Ki:fort S.A.A. Ai)VA\f:KMK\T of Scienok. 



nioruing Dr. Atherstone told all his friends of the wonderful dis- 

 eo\'ei-v, and to make absolutely certain Prof. MacO\\an suggested 

 taking its specific gravity, which was eventually done. At Govern- 

 ment House, in the Drostdy, the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Henry 

 Barkly, was giving a dinner-party that evening, and Dr. Atherstone 

 hap[)ened to be seated next to the late Henry Blaine, whom he told 

 of his intention of publicly announcing the discovery later on when 

 the toasts were being drunk. Now at a previous dinner-party at 

 Government House Dr. Atherstone had announced the discover}' of 

 gold in the Orange River Colony from specimens from the 8and 

 River, which afterwards turned out to be salted, and Blaine turned 

 to Atherstone and said, " For hea\en's sake, doctor, don't do it ; 

 remember the Sand River gold." The warning, however, was not 

 heeded, and the announcement was made. Dr. Atherstone wrote to 

 Mr. Boyes telling him that the stone was a veritable diamond, 

 weighing 21.\ carats, and worth £500, and what is more important 

 in view of subsequent opinions, he added, " N^'here that came fronv 

 there nuist be lots more." Dr. Atherstone's determination was con- 

 firmed b}' Messrs. Hurst it Boskell, the Crown jewellers in London, 

 and the stone was purchased at Dr. Atherstfme's valuation by Sir 

 Philip Wodehouse, and sent by him to the Paris Exhibition in 1867. 

 O'Reilly shared the £500 with Van Niekerk. and together they 

 looked for more diamonds, but except for one good stone, the famous 

 "Star of South Africa,'' their finds were not worth much. Dr. Ather- 

 stone I'ecords one at Ca wood's in 1868 ; this Cawood, an 1820 settler, 

 gave his name to one of the diggings on the Vaal Ri\er, Cawood's 

 Hope. 



In this very vear, 1867, a dealer in precious stones, Harry 

 Emmanuel, had published a l)0ok on diamonds in which he maintained 

 that thev could only be found in granitic areas, and of course the Cape 

 was not mentioned as a locality for them. At his own expense then 

 he sent out James R. Gregory, who kept a little shop in liegent Street, 

 w'here he sold minerals and other objects of natural history. This 

 Mr. Gregory travelled from George right through the country to 

 Griquatown, and, according to his observations, except for a portion 

 near the coast, the rest of South Africa was entirely xolcanic, and 

 therefore an impossible country in which to find diamonds. He 

 suggested that Atherstone's diamond had been carried to Hopetown 

 by ostriches. Harrv Emmanuel then published a letter in the Journal 

 of the Society of Arts, reproduced in our Grahamstown Jonninl of 

 Sth January, 1869, together with a leader headed "Diamonds or no 

 Diamonds.'' In this letter Emmanuel insinuated that the good people 

 of the Cape had imported diamonds from Brazil in order to attract 

 settlers to their ban-en land. Government employed Mr. (i. F. 

 GilfiUan, who was then boring for coal at Port Alfred, to go and 

 see what this Mr. Gregory had been doing up along the Orange Rivei-, 

 and there is a most spirited letter from GilfiUan published in the 

 Grahamstown JournaJ, dated Kowie East, 23rd January, 1869. In it 

 he describes what he IukI found : Gre'a»rv had not been near the 



