1870.] GILriLLAN CAPE DIAMOND-DISTRICTS, 73 



an outcrop of hard blue scMst. Where the sandy covering is re- 

 moved, a deposit of tufaceous nodular limestone is exposed. 



Crossing the Yaal River at the Griqua mission-station of Back- 

 house, the author entered the true diamond-district. At Nicholson's 

 farm, about six miles up the river, he observed the outcrop of a 

 hard conglomerate, sometimes assuming the aspect of a breccia, com- 

 posed of angular and rounded pebbles and blocks of quartz, jasper, 

 &c. of all sizes to upwards of a foot in diameter. Overlying this 

 was a highly ferruginous soil containing numerous pebbles of quartz, 

 jasper, iron ore, &c., in which, the author was informed, several dia- 

 monds had been found. 



Prom Backhouse the author pushed on to Likatlong, about sixty 

 miles further north. On the road along the banks of the Yaal Biver 

 he occasionally observed schistose rocks, and also a great deal of 

 unstratified limestone, containing quartz and other pebbles, in which 

 diamonds Avere said to have been found with limestone adhering to 

 them. Beneath this limestone, when denuded away, a ferruginous 

 clay, the same as above described, makes its appearance, and is 

 searched by the natives for diamonds. The author considers that 

 the number of diamonds found at Likatlong had been greatly ex- 

 aggerated. He states that the diamonds were everywhere obtained 

 from the ferruginous soil, and that the spots which had been searched 

 were always near the river, and, as far as he observed, only on the 

 right bank, where the level of the country for some distance from 

 the river is lower than on the opposite side. He considers that the 

 finding of diamonds on this side only is due to the absence of the 

 great deposit of sand which raises the country on the opposite bank 

 to a much higher level. 



Discussion. 



Prof. TENNAifT stated that he had lately seen as many as 500 

 diamonds from the South-African fields in the possession of one 

 person, some weighing as much as 50 carats. He had seen another 

 fragment of a stone which must have originally been at least as 

 large as the Koh-i-noor. 



December 21, 1870. 



Valentine D. Colchester, Esq., 4 Buckland Villas, Belsize Park, 

 N.W. ; H. J. Heighten, Esq., Gold Street, Kettering ; Thomas 

 Hawksley, Esq., 30 Great George Street, "Westminster ; Prank 

 Butley, Esq., of the Geological Survey of England, Jermyn Street ; 

 Isaac Roberts, Esq., 26 Rock Park, Rockferry, Cheshire ; Richard 

 Glascott Symes, Esq., of the Geological Survey of Ireland, of Victoria 

 Terrace, Ballina, County Mayo, and 14 Hume Street, Dublin ; and 

 Daniel Pidgeon, Esq., F.R.M.S.^ Banbury, were elected Eellows of 

 the Society. 



The following communications were read : — 



