NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



1872, an incident that brought into strong relief King's de- 

 cision of character and readiness in an emergency and made him 

 more widely and favorably known to the general public than any 

 single act of his varied career. 



News of an apparently well authenticated discovery of dia- 

 monds in sufficient quantity to affect the markets of the world 

 had been circulated throughout the public prints during the en- 

 tire summer. Its location had been kept carefully concealed, 

 though it was generally assumed to be somewhere in Arizona. 

 A company with ten millions of capital had been formed to work 

 the diamond fields, whose stock had been freely subscribed to by 

 some of the most prominent men in the East as well as the West, 

 while a host of other companies were already organized ready to 

 float their stock as soon as the position and character of the 

 diamond-bearing rocks should become known. 



Late in the autumn the writer and several other members of 

 the 40th Parallel Survey, while on their way to San Francisco 

 at the close of field work, became possessed of a number of clues, 

 which though separately of the most indefinite character, when 

 combined together enabled them, from their intimate knowledge 

 of the country, to fix the location of the supposed discovery at a 

 certain point within the area surveyed by him during the previous 

 year. Whether by chance or intention, the location selected by 

 the supposed discoverers had been singularly well chosen from a 

 geological standpoint, for when asked where within that area 

 diamonds would most probabh* be discovered, King at once fixed 

 on that very region as the most probable one for their occur- 

 rence. It was because of its scientific importance that he de- 

 cided upon an immediate investigation in spite of the lateness 

 and inclemency of the season. It req\iired over a week's travel 

 for himself and assistants to reach the spot, and when, after 

 several days' careful geological investigation, it was found that 

 the diamonds could not have been placed there by Nature, King 

 realized that a most cleverly planned fraud had been foisted on 

 the public, which, if not promptly and conclusively exposed, 

 would result not only in pecuniary loss to innocent investors, 

 but in great suffering and even loss of life to the many that 

 would probably rush to the bleak exposed region where the loca- 

 tions had been made. By journeying night and day across the 



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