Record. lix 
reputation; but in the minds of his colleagues of the Uni- 
versity and of the Academy, his truest claim to distine- 
tion lies in the exceptional qualities of heart and charac- 
ter, which endeared him to his friends, which were a con- 
stant inspiration to all who came within the sphere of his 
influence and of which the memory constitutes a living 
monument in his honor. 
The Academy of Science of St. Louis places this record 
in its archives as a brief token of respect and as an ex- 
pression of its sense of the severe loss which the Academy 
and the world has sustained in his death. 
(Signed) Launcetor W. ANDREws, 
Cuas. D. STEVENS, 
H. A. WHEELER, 
Committee. 
Professor W. E. McCourt gave an illustrated lecture 
on ‘‘Diamonds in Arkansas.’’ 
Professor McCourt first gave a general account of the properties of 
the diamond, and an account of some of the famous diamonds of 
history. Then the general commercial occurrences of the diamond 
were considered—namely, India, Brazil and Africa, whence the world’s 
supply of diamonds has largely come. Diamonds have also occurred 
in the United States, but nowhere in very large quantities. 
In 1906, however, diamonds were found derived from a parent 
rock in Pike County, Arkansas, near the town of Murfreesboro. The 
presence of the rock in this region, similar to rock in which dia- 
monds were found in Africa, has been known for some time, and 
the State Survey has mapped one of the areas. The igneous rock 
is a peridotite which has been pushed up through the Carboniferous 
and Cretaceous quartzites and sandstones, and in places is covered 
by beds of Post-Tertiary and Quaternary formations. But there does 
not seem to have been any metamorphism accompanying the intrusion 
of this material. This peridotite is a dark colored, basic, igneous rock 
which contains olivine, augite, magnetite, mica and perofskite. In 
some places the rock is exceedingly hard and dense, but in others it 
has weathered to a yellowish and greenish soft material, to a. depth 
of from twenty to fifty feet. Covering the region to a depth of a 
foot or so is a black gumbo soil which contains fragments of the hard 
peridotites and the country rock. 
The work in this region has not been very extensive, but bore 
holes have been made in several places, one reaching to a depth of 
205 feet in the hard rock; several companies have located on the 
area; and stones to the number of 600 have already been found. The 
largest stone is six and a half carats. Some have been cut and are 
