THE DIAMOND AND OTHER PRECIOUS STONES. 341 



If uo more should ever be found, it will be ou account of tiieir extreme 

 scarceness, which recalls a saying of Tacitus with regard to the pearls 

 of England: "It is rather nature that fails in their production than 

 the avidity of man in their discovery." Hitherto Borneo has contributed 

 no diamond of any considerable size. It is true, however, that the 

 almost imi^enetrable forests of this equatorial isle have prevented a 

 thorough research. A late number of the Journal of the Geographical - 

 Society of London gives about 2,000 carats as the annual product of 

 the mines of Borneo, which have never yet yielded a diamond of 36 

 carats. The monopoly of the government of Holland in this matter is 

 found to be quite profitless, and it is probable that, as in Brazil, a con- 

 siderable portion of the production is abstracted by contraband trade. 



The rank of a diamond can only be approximately deternnned by its 

 weight. If, for example, it is not of a beautiful water, perfectly pure, 

 colorless, and limpid, it cannot receive the title of sovereign. Further- 

 more, if its luster is not brilliant, it will have to be recut to render it per- 

 fect, and in this operation it will lose weight. The Eegent and the Koh-i- 

 noor are equal in beauty, but the Eegent of 130 carats is more valuable 

 than its rival, which has been reduced in cutting from 1S(3-J^ carats to 

 102^1 carats. The diamond of Tuscany is of an inferior color, a yellow- 

 ish lemon. The great diamond of Eussia is rather ill-shaped ; it is like 

 a i^igeon-egg cut in half, with facets over its whole contour. It is only a 

 big stone, a species of heavy rose much too thick. If the Koh-i-noor and 

 the Star of the South had been cut in the Sancy form, it is probable 

 that with a brilliance equal to that of the Eegent they would have sur- 

 passed it in weight. The Star of the South, when I saw it in the pos- 

 session of M. Dufresnoj' at the Institu'te, w^eighed 254J carats ; but by 

 injudicious cutting, I regret to say, it was reduced to 127 carats. 



Permit me further to remark in regard to the Saucy form that it 

 always admits of a subsequent cutting into that of the brilliant, and is 

 easily experimented upon. For this reason it is prudent not to sacrifice 

 until the last extremity so much weight as must be lost in reducing a 

 stone of the form of the Indian or Brazil diamond by the ordinary cut- 

 ting. I have seen at Amsterdam a model of the form which the latter 

 would take by ordinary cutting. It will be like the Koh-i-noor, that is 

 to say, not sufficiently thick for the size of its face. 



In comparing the English diamond with the model of 100 carats given 

 by Jeffries it will be found that its extent of face is almost double what 

 it ought to be for a diamond properly cut. 



It would be a curious speculation to follow the future history of the 

 Star of the South after having shone at the French exposition. What 

 name will this sovereign diamond assume '? AVill it be Albert or Francis 

 Joseph ? The proud Americans, sagacious estimaters of all commercial 

 values, will they have the ambition to possess one of these rare produc- 

 tions of nature'? "How have you managed to put so immense a price 



