THE DIAMOND IN NORTH AMERICA 693 



rences in Tennessee and Kentucky are not as yet definitely traceable, even in 

 theory. All have been found in loose and superficial deposits and all accident- 

 ally ; most of those in the Atlantic and Pacific regions have been found in 

 washing for gold. 



Historically, the first diamond recognized in the United States appears to 

 have been found in 1830, in central Indiana ; it came finally into the hands of 

 the well known artist, the late James W. Beard, who wore it for over 50 years. 

 No others appear to have been found in this region until within the past 

 quarter century, when several were obtained in the glacial drift, and their 

 peculiar transported character began to be understood. 



The finding of diamonds in the gold washings of northern Georgia goes back 

 by local tradition to the "forties," but definite records of such discoveries do 

 not begin until some years later, when a few were found in North Carolina. 

 The largest stone ever obtained in the United States, the celebrated Dewey 

 diamond, of 23% carats, was found in 1855, by a laborer while digging in a 

 bank, at Manchester, Virginia, nearly opposite Richmond. Two have been met 

 with lately in Alabama, and there may be in all twenty or twenty-five diamonds 

 known from the southern Atlantic states. 



The first diamond in California was recognized in 1849, soon after the dis- 

 covery of gold, but no particular accounts are on record until 1853. Altogether, 

 some 200 small diamonds have been reported from this State, most of them 

 from the four counties of Amador, Butte, El Dorado, and Nevada ; the last named 

 has yielded only a few, but one of these is the largest known from California, 

 a stone of 7% carats. All have been discovered in connection with gold- 

 mining, and most of them in the hard "cement" gravel, overlain and com- 

 pacted by beds of lava or volcanic tufa. Of late years but few have been 

 obtained, though many fragments appear in the sluices ; but the general use of 

 hydraulic mining and stamp mills causes any diamonds that may exist to be 

 either swept away and buried in the debris or else crushed into bits by the 

 stamps. This seems very regrettable ; but the amount of diamonds that might 

 be saved by the use of other methods would not probably compensate at all for 

 the cost of installing different processes from those now employed. Notwith- 

 standing this, it is stated that two companies have been formed for the pur- 

 pose of searching for diamonds in Amador and Butte counties. 



The diamonds of the northwestern drift began to attract attention about 

 fifteen years ago, when several in succession were found in Wisconsin ; some 

 of these had been picked up years before and kept as curiosities, without knowl- 

 edge of what they were. Professor W. H. Hobbs, of the State University at 

 Madison, made a very careful study of these occurrences and established clearly 

 their glacial origin. Then one was found under similar conditions at Dowagiac, 

 Michigan, in 1894, and another soon after near Cincinnati, Ohio. Within a few 

 years past several small stones have been encountered by local gold-washers in 

 the streams of Brown and Morgan counties, Indiana. These likewise are in or 

 associated with the drift moraine, as doubtless w T as also the first one from 

 this region, found, as above stated, as far back as 1830. A few small stones 

 were also noted from this section in 1878 by the late Professor E. T. Cox, then 

 state geologist, who first recognized their glacial derivation. 



The number of diamonds accidentally found in these drift deposits — now 

 some 25 or 30 — shows that hundreds or even thousands of them must be lying 



