TBANSACTIONS OF 8ECTI0X E. 625 



3. On the Identification of certain Ancient Diamond Mines in India, 



By Professor V. Ball, M.A., F.E.S., F.O.S. 



The vague references to India, as the only then known source of diamonds, by 

 the "writers of li,000 years ago, give place to more definite indications of position 

 in Sanscrit works of the sixth century, and possibly of somewhat earlier dates. 

 In the Barhat Sanhita a list of localities is given, but as the stones from some of 

 the localities therein mentioned were copper-coloured, it is possible that they were 

 not diamonds. 



In the Ain-i-Akbari (1590), and also less clearly in Ferishta's History (1425), 

 a locality named Beiragarh is referred to, which can be identified with Wairagarh 

 in the Central Provinces, where the remains of ancient mines are still to be seen. 



The following localities mentioned by Tavernier (1665), had not been identified 

 until lately, though various attempts had been made by Colonel Eeimell and others 

 since his time. Gani or Coulour is KoUur on the Kistna, Gani simply standing for 

 Kan-i ov mine of; Raolcouda is Kamulkota in Karuul ; Soumelpour was on the 

 Koel river in the Palamow district of Bengal. 



Kollur would appear from Tavemier's statement to have been the mine where 

 the Great Mogul diamond was found. The same stone is perhaps identical with 

 one mentioned by Garciiis ab Horto, who wrote 100 years before Tavernier, but if 

 so it must have been found several centuries before the time (fifteenth century) in- 

 dicated by Tavernier. 



Tlie author referred to several other early authorities, and to the mythical 

 stories which are connected ^^•ith the accounts of diamond-mining, for the origin of 

 which he proposed explanations. 



4. The Geograjihy and Meteorology of Kansas. By Litton Forbes, 



M.B., F.B.G.S. 



The author, who had had large personal experience in Kansas and Colorado, 

 desired to point out some facts in the geography and meteorology of Western 

 Kansas, which, perhaps, had not received all the attention they deserved. The 

 physical conditions of this State, the most central of the Union, were in many 

 respects peculiar. It was a land of undulating plains, almost as flat to the eye as 

 Holland or Egypt. Its watercourses, its soil, and above all its climate, presented 

 many points of interest. It would be perhaps impossible to find a country of equal 

 extent where the physical changes produced by the advent of civilisation have been 

 so numerous and so important. Not only has the fauna been in great part changed, 

 but the flora also, as well as the amount of rainfall, and the general hygrometric 

 conditions of the atmosphere. Not merely has the nimiber of inches of annual 

 rainfall increased, but it has also been more equably extended over a larger extent 

 of country. The procession westward of the rainfall of Kansas in proportion as 

 settlement has extended westward, is a most important fact. It may be due in 

 part to the planting of timber, but is probably much more directly dependent on the 

 immense acreage under wheat, indian-corn,and other crops, which afford protection 

 to the earth from the sun's rays, and so check a too rapid evaporation. A careful 

 study of the changes wrought in the climate of Kansas by settlement might possibly 

 aid in the solution of certain problems which have long presented themselves in 

 some of the southern colonies of Great Britain. Many parts of South Australia 

 and New South Wales assimilate very much to Western Kansas in soil and climate. 

 Those countries have hitherto been considered as possessing too little moisture for 

 agriculture, and as therefore fit only for grazing purposes. The same was said of 

 Kansas some twenty years ago, but within that time very marked climatic changes 

 have taken place. What settlement has effected in Kansas, it may equally well efi'ect 

 in Australia, with similarly beneficial results. The State of Kansas forms a rect- 

 angular parallelogram, which measures about 400 miles from north to south, and 

 about 200 from east to west, and contains over 82,000 square miles. Though to 

 1882. s s 



