BY JAMES ANDREW. 105 



Colour, or rather absence of colour, is almost of more importance 

 in determining the value of these precious stones than freedom from 

 specs or flaws. Yellow is the commonest tint, and it is a general, 

 but very mistaken belief, that all Cape diamonds are more or less 

 tinged with this colour. Yellow stones are frequently of great 

 brilliancy and fire, and by some are admired more than the purer 

 gems. They are found of all shades from a pale straw colour to 

 deep orange. The Dutoitspan mine is remarkable for its yield of 

 large yellow stones. Brown and grey diamonds are often of great 

 beauty, and in purer coloured stones the various tints are known as 

 *' Cape white," "bye water," "off colour," etc. Blue, green and 

 pink tinted diamonds are not uncommon, but are seldom looked 

 upon with any great amount of favour unless of exceptional quality 

 and brilliancy, and depth of tint, when their rarity and beauty 

 warrant a specially enhanced price being asked. Such a stone was 

 in the possession of a Dutch canteen keeper on the Vaal River, and 

 it was one I had many opportunities of exauiining. The colour 

 was a tawny orange red or flame colour, quite distinct from the 

 ruby tint of ordinary red diamonds. When cut it weighed about 

 two carats, and the fortunate owner stated he had refused £600 for 

 it, an instance of an exceptional estimated value^ as a pure white 

 diamond of equal size would not be worth more than a twentieth 

 of that sum. Some of the diamonds found in the Dry Diggings 

 develop strange and very disappointing peculiarities. A stone 

 when first found may be remarkable for its fire and great brilliancy. 

 After a few hours' exposure to air and light a faint flavr appears, 

 this gradually spreads and radiates, until, perhaps by the following 

 morning, the diamond may be found burst into a hundred frag- 

 ments A suspected stone is ofcen parted with at a very low rate, 

 resold almost immediately, if an unsuspicious buyer can be found, 

 who may shortly find himself the possessor of unsaleable chips. 

 Various expedients have been recommended as precautions against 

 this unprofitable dissolution, and it seems generally accepted that 

 protection for some time from air and brilliant light is necessary. 

 Immersion in honey, treacle, or grease is supposed to have a 

 beneficial effect. Fortunately these stones are not common. 



Boart is a term locally descriptive of comparatively valueless 

 stones or fragments of black, brown, or grey diamondiferous 

 substance irregularly massed in one specimen ; 2s. 6d. per carat was 

 the ruling rate for "stuff" of this nature on the fields, and it is 

 principally used, ground into powder, for polishing valuable stones. 



Many diamonds of note have been raised from the Griqualand 

 mines. The largest of which there is any authentic record is one of 

 457 carats ; rumours of the discovery of this gem were current in 

 the fields more than four years ago, but accurate accounts were not 

 to be then obtained, as the stone was an "illicit" or stolen one 

 and the receiver was serving a sentence for other irregularities in 

 connection with the contraband purchase of diamonds. It was 

 afterwards bought by a syndicate of diamond merchants, and they 

 estimated it would cut, as a brilliant, to about 220 carats, or iu 

 another form to about 300 carats. In size, colour, and purity it 

 was expected to prr>ve the most marvellous stone ever known, and 

 I believe this was the diamond it was proposed to present to Her 

 Majesty in commemoration of her jubilee. Three celebrated stones. 



