250 Among Men and Horses. 



cheapness. Had the companies which the De Beers' people 

 ' bought up/ continued to work in rivalry, this result e'er now 

 would have come to pass, and diamonds might, perhaps, have 

 ceased to merit the name of ' precious stones.' I may 

 mention that a stone to be * precious,' must be rare, beautiful, 

 and permanent enough in its nature to stand wear. With the 

 exception of the Kimberley and Jagersfontein mines, all the 

 others have been closed, so as to keep down the super- 

 abundant supply. The Kimberley mine is remarkable for its 

 extraordinary richness ; though the stones extracted from it, 

 are, as a rule, of inferior quality. The Jagersfontein mine, 

 though not nearly as productive as the other, turns out 

 diamonds of great purity. As regards quality, we may divide 

 diamonds into ' white ' stones, ' off colour ' stones, and ' fancy ' 

 stones. A stone to be * white ' should be free from the slight- 

 est trace of yellow (the besetting sin of these minerals), 

 brown, red, or any other colour except blue, of which a faint 

 shade greatly adds to its value. * Off colour ' stones are those 

 which are slightly though manifestly tinged with any colour 

 except blue. They are worth comparatively little, even when 

 the shade is perceptible only to trained eyes, and even when 

 the diamond, thus discounted, might have finer lustre than an 

 ordinary white stone. Diamonds which are decidedly off 

 colour find a market chiefly among the native princes of 

 India. When, however, the colour is deep without affecting 

 the lustre, the stone is called a' fancy ' stone, and might fetch, 

 per carat, even a higher price than the most beautiful blue 

 white stone. As such a diamond is not ' every man's money,' 

 the owner of one, if he wished to sell it, might have to wait a 

 long time before he got a customer. The commonest off 

 colour and fancy stones in South Africa, are yellow, amber, 

 brown, and reddish brown. Some of the deep yellow ones 

 look very well, and closely resemble yellow rubies ; but are 

 more brilliant, and far more costly. Deep amber is a 

 favourite shade, in which I can see but little beauty. I met 

 with no pure red diamonds in Kimberley. As far as I know, 



