Darnell. — On the Stone Epoch at the Cape of Good Hope. 139 



eartliern vessels, etc., have been found by the diggers imbedded in the calcareous 

 deposit. Some, whose opinions are entitled to respect, consider it probable that 

 these relics found their way into the hollows at the same time and in the same 

 manner as the broken and perfect diamonds have done, and that the accumula- 

 tion was a work of time and great climatic changes ; and that the diamonds 

 were not found where they are now found, but have come from some other 

 source. The sagacious editor of a newspaper, in commenting upon these views 

 in a leading article, remarks: — "We cannot say that we agree with this 

 judgment. The diamonds are strangers in the chalk beds at Du Doit's Pan 

 and De Beer's, but they are scarcely much older strangers than the ostrich 

 eggs and broken pots." 



He was, perhaps, nearer the mark than he imagined when he wrote this. 

 For how old may these ostrich eggs and broken pots not be ? The ostrich, I 

 imagine, is older in Africa than the Moa is in New Zealand, geologically 

 speaking, and then it is not yet extinct. 



Dr. Atherstone, a geologist of some repute, says, "But though some surface 

 diamonds no doubt, along with ostrich eggs, arrow heads, bones, etc., got 

 down these cracks to a considerable distance, it does not follow that all Bult- 

 fontein diamonds were thus accumulated. Wind may have blown sand and 

 pebbles, and even diamonds in, but there are other sections and facts which 

 cannot be thus explained." 



Daintree says (I don't think he has seen a " Pan ") " The Du Toit's 

 Pan halk is evidently a secondary deposit, as it contains abraded fragments 

 of quartz, garnet, etc., and besides has 86 pei? cent, of carbonate of lime, 

 soluble in hydrochloric acid. I have just seen a diamond attached to 

 this kalk, which certainly looks, under the microscope, very much as if 

 it had crystallized in situ, showing no sign whatever of abrasion, and 

 having small cavities on the surface corresponding with the structure of the 

 kalk matrix to which it is attached. This specimen shows me that Bunn's 

 theory of the diamonds being blown into the Du Toit's Pan material can 

 only hold for a moiety of such gems, and will, I almost think, account for 

 very few. Why should they be blown into cracks in the kalk ? Why not 

 into any cracks between that and their source, and in that way it should not 

 be difficult to find out their source ? We must, in this matter, ' wait a little 

 longer.' " 



I have sent to the Cape for all the pamphlets which have been published 

 on the diamond field, in the hope that some further light may be thrown on 

 the subject. 



