OcTOIiliR S, 1S91] 



NATURE 



559 



merchant translated this weight into carats, not as from the old 

 ratis of Babar's or even of Akhar's day, but from the pearl ratis, of 

 one or other value, with which he had become acquainted in the 

 bazaars of India. Tavernier's rail, as calculated from the Paris 

 carat on the ratio of |, should have a value of 277088 troy 

 grains, and as drawn from his various statements of ei|uivalent 

 weights it varies from 2"4o66, in onj case 2750, to 2797 troy 

 grains. His mishkal also lie puts at \ the French ounce, i.e. 

 787 troy grains; which should, however, probably have been 

 6^ ounces to the mishkal, and the rati of 'lavernier is entirely 

 dissimilar to any known raii of ancient or modern India. 



The 319^ ratis is readily explained on this hypothesis ; and it is 

 really too large a demand on our credulity to believe that two of 

 the largest diamonds in the world should be severally of 319^ 

 ratis and 320 ratis, though of different units of value, when a 

 simpler explanation is able to dispose of the anomaly. 



I have said that the marvellous cjincidences of weight impoitcd 

 into the Koh i-Nur history do not come to an end with Babar's 

 8 mishkals, with Anselm de Boot's 187^ carats, with Tavernier's 

 3194 ratis, nor even with Dr. Ball's miraculous chipping pro- 

 cess, resulting in a reduction of the Great Mogul diamond to 

 the identical weight of the Koh-i-Nur in 1850. The original 

 diamond of Babar had to be accounted for, and its ghost had to 

 be laid. So another coincidence had to be imported into the 

 narrative, or rather iuto the romance. Another diamond had to 

 be found, also with the precise weight of the Koh-i-Nur, and this 

 Dr. Ball has ready to hand. The Darya-i-Nur, or " Sea of Light," 

 reposes in the treasury of the Shah. Sir J. Malcolm saw it, and 

 casually stated its weight as given to him at 186 carats. Now 

 Sir J. Malcolm, during his residence at the Court of the Shah, 

 not only was acquainted with the marvellous treasures in jewels 

 brought by Nadir from the palace of Delhi, but he svas enabled 

 to \\z.\Qfacsitnile drawings of them made. 



By the kindness of his i-on, General Malcolm, I possess the 

 tracings of this dazzling wealth of jewellery. The Darja-i-Nur 

 is a large flat diamond with bevelled edges, and in the form of a 

 long rectangle. When Malcolm knew it, it was set in a glorious 

 galaxy of mighty rubies. He c^uld therefore have only knawn 

 its wtight from hearsay eviiiecce, and the recorded carats were 

 most likely the echo of those associated with the fame of the 

 Koh-i-Nur. Now, I have no hesitation in asserting this Darya- 

 i-Nur to be "an old acquaiiitance of those familiar with Tavernier's 

 pages. Unless two diamonds, flat, bevelled, and of identical 

 dimensions,. can be sho An to co-exist, of above 200 carats weight, 

 the stone known as the Golconda diamond or the Table diamond 

 is no other than the Darya i-Nur. 



It happens foriunalely to be one of the few stones described 

 by Ta vernier to the form and weight of which, as given by him, 

 we can attach complete confidence. He had a lead model made 

 from it in crder to negotiate its sale : and he gives its weight as 

 176^ mangelins, or 242 ,V "de nos carats." This gives its weight 

 at 767"42 troy grains, or 240 English carats, this particular man- 

 gelm being, on Tavernier's estimate of llj of a carat, about 4'357 

 troy grains, Ta vernier having had a lead model made of this 

 remarkable flat diamond, he figures it no doubt with much 

 exactitude. A copy of his figure and of the tracing of the 

 Darya i-Nur is subjoined, in which it will be sten that il the un- 

 symmetrical end be cut otf and ihe sides more accurately squared, 

 so as to make the diamond a symmetrical itciangle, tlie figures 

 of 1 he two stones become identical in form and dimension. A 

 card ci»t to represent the " G jlconda " diamond, and the parts of 

 it as described, gave the ratio of 



the Golconda: the Darya-i-Nur = 10 : 85, 



that is to say, the portion trimmed away was about 15 per cent. 



The remaining stone would thus have a weight of about 214 

 English carats, and if 4 carats be allowed for the bevelling and 

 squaring of the stone,. the present weight of the Darya-i-Nur 

 should be about 210 English carats. 



I trust I have thus laid this last phantom raised by the author 

 of the "true history." But the final problem as to the Great 

 Mogul diamond still remains. 



If the Queen's proud trophy of the final conquest of India 

 is indeed the great Kohn Nur, the oKl Malwa diamond descend- 

 ing to Her Majesty from the possession of Palan and Mogul 

 dynasties of Delhi ; carried o(T to Persia and named by Nadir ; 

 seized as the potent talis r,an of empire by Ahmed Shah, 

 and held by his Durani descendants till it came back to India, 



the companion of the exile of Shah Sujah, and then torn from 

 him by the grim Lion of Lahore — true to its destiny as " the 

 possession, ever, of him that was the stro.igest," — if this be- 

 indeed the stone that, from early times to 1850, preserved its 

 form and weight of 8 mishkals, where was. and where is now, 

 the Great Mogul diamond that Bernier told of ? The answer is, 

 I believe, the simplest and the most natural : It is, where the 

 historian would look for it, in the treasury of Teheran. One 

 large diamond, standing high upon an elliptic base, is there, or 

 was there, in Sir John Malcolm's day. Its long diameter is 

 much larger, and its shorter diaiieter smaller, than that of the 

 diamond figuied by Ta vernier, 



I do not assert it to be the Great Mogul. I assert merely that 

 it probably is that great diamond ; and I hope that in what has 



Golcsnda Table Diamond. 



Darya i-Nur. 



been said in the criticisms I have here offered upon the writers 

 on the Koh i-Nur I have averred nothing (hat does not rest 

 on proof; that I have offered no conjecture that is not sup- 

 ported by reasonable probability ; and that I have made no 

 assault on any theory or fact asserted to be such by others, 

 without at least offering some justification for my critici m in 

 the reasons and facts I have been able to adduce. 



A true history of the Kohi-Nur has still to be written. T 

 hope I have, in these criticisms, done S)mething to clear the 

 way for the writer of it. Other avocations and duties may pre- 

 vent my undertaking the interesting taik. At any rate, if it 

 should ever be mine to perform it, I trust the result will at least 

 bear some verisimilitude to a true history. 



N, Story- Maskelyne. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



A LARGE poition of the number of the Botanical Gaietle f.>r 

 July is occupied by an instalment of Mr, John Donnell Smith's 

 "UndescribedPlantsfrom Guatemala"; several of the new species 

 are figured. New parasitic or saprophytic Fungi — Hyphomycetcs 

 and Uredinese — ore described in this number by Mr. R. Thaxte'-» 

 and in that for August by Mr. J. C. Arthur. In the latter, M . 

 T. Holm continues his study of some anatomical characters of 

 North American Gramineae, and Mr. F. Lamson Scribner con- 

 tri'outes a sketch of the flora of Orono, Maine. 



The numljers of the Journal of Botany for August and 

 September contain the conclusion of Mr. G. Murray's importai.t 

 paper on the Algae of the Clyde sea-area, accompanied by a 

 map showing the various depths. This pa^er has now been 

 issued separately. In his notes on Mycetozoa, Mr. A. Lister 

 describes species found in various herbaria not included in Di. 

 Cooke's " Myxomycetes of Great Britain "—three of them new 



NO. II 45, VOL. 44] 



