692 PROCEEDINGS OF THE OTTAWA MEETING 



The last paper of the morning session was 



SAPPHIRE; ITS OCCURRENCE AND ORIGIN 

 BY W. H. COLLINS* 



Kemarks were made by T. L. Walker. The Society adjourned for the 

 noon recess. 



At 2.30 o'clock p m the Society reconvened and an address of welcome 

 was given by Dr Robert Bell, Acting Deputy Head and Director of the 

 Geological Survey of Canada. A brief response was made by President 

 Pumpelly. 



Announcement was made that from 4.30 to 7.00 o'clock p m Dr and 

 Mrs Eobert Bell would receive the Fellows of the Society at their home. 



The scientific program was resumed, and the following paper, in the 

 absence of the author, was presented briefly by J. F. Kemp : 



OCCURRENCE OF THE DIAMOND IN NORTH AMERICA 

 BY GEOKGE F. KTJNZ 



[Abstract] 



The great advance in the prices of diamonds within a few years past, to- 

 gether with the fact that the demand for diamonds has become so large in this 

 country, has stimulated interest in the question of the possible discovery of 

 diamond mines in the United States. This whole subject has been treated of 

 in some detail in a bulletin by the writer to the U. S. Geological Survey, now 

 about to be issued. Diamonds have been found at various points in our ter- 

 ritory, though never of large size or in any abundance; but the facts are of 

 much interest as they are here gathered and presented. 



There are four regions where diamonds have been met with in the United 

 States. These are : ( 1 ) the Pacific coast, chiefly along the western base of the 

 Sierra Nevada, in the central counties of California, associated with gold in 

 the cement gravels; (2) along the line of the moraine of the ancient ice-sheet 

 of the Glacial epoch of geology, in Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio ; 

 these have been transported from an undiscovered source somewhere in Can- 

 ada ; (3) a few only in central Kentucky and Tennessee; (4) the Atlantic 

 states from Virginia to Alabama, chiefly along the eastern base of the Appala- 

 chians, in what is known as the Piedmont region. The actual place of the 

 origin of the diamonds is in all these cases unknown. Those of the Pacific 

 coast and the Atlantic states have been derived by erosion from the adjacent 

 mountain ranges, but the original sources have never been discovered. Those 

 of the northern drift have come from beyond our borders, in Dominion terri- 

 tory, and their exact source is entirely a matter of speculation. The few occur- 



* Introduced by T. h. Walker, 



