6 MODERN SCIENCE READER 



Prodigious diamonds are not so uncommon as is generally 

 supposed. Diamonds weighing over an ounce (151.5 

 carats) are not infrequent at Kimberley. I have seen in 

 one parcel of stones eight perfect ounce crystals, and one 

 inestimable stone weighing two ounces. The largest known 

 diamond, the "Cullinan," was found in the New Premier 

 Mine. It weighs no less than 3,025 carats, or 1.37 pounds 

 avoirdupois. It is a fragment, probably less than half, of 

 a distorted octahedral crystal. The other portions still 

 await discovery by some fortunate miner. 



At the close of the year 1904, ten tons of diamonds had 

 come from these mines, valued at $300,000,000. This mass 

 of blazing gems could be accommodated in a box five feet 

 square and six feet high. The diamond has a peculiar 

 luster, and on the sorter's table it is impossible to mistake 

 it for any other stone. It looks somewhat like clear gum 

 arabic. From the sorting-room the stones are taken to the 

 Diamond Office to be cleaned in acids and sorted into classes 

 by the valuators, according to color and purity. It is a 

 sight for Aladdin to behold the sorters at work. In the 

 Kimberley treasure store the tables are literally heaped 

 with stones won from the rough blue ground stones of all 

 sizes, purified, flashing and of inestimable price; stones 

 coveted by men and women all the world over. 



Where fabulous riches are concentrated into so small a 

 bulk, it is not surprising that precautions against robbery 

 are elaborate. The Illicit Diamond-Buying Laws are very 

 stringent; and the searching, rendered easy by the " com- 

 pounding " of the natives, is of the most drastic character. 

 The value of stolen diamonds at one time reached nearly 

 $5,000,000 a year. Now the safeguard against this is the 

 "compound." This is a large square, about twenty acres, 

 surrounded by rows of one-story buildings, divided into 

 rooms holding about twenty natives each. 



Within the enclosure is a store where the necessaries of 

 life are supplied at a reduced price, and wood and water 

 free. In the middle is a large swimming-bath with fresh 



