34 Anniversary Address. 



and tlie former declaring tliat tlie rocks are fossiliferous, of tlie 

 Dicynodon beds (whicli by the way brings them into relation 

 with some of our Australian rocks) ; and that Mr. Wyley (an 

 accepted geological authority) had, years before this controversy^ 

 shown that there was an intimate relationship with the Indian 

 diamond region of Bangnapilly, and that Dr. i:>haw had described 

 the African district in the Graliani's Town Journal of the 20th 

 January, 1869, pointing out also the same resemblance. 



In the " Journal of the Society of Arts," of the 13th 

 February, 1869, is a list of the diamonds by Mr. Chalmers ; who, as 

 well as Mr. EadelofF, a Missionary, asserts that one of them was 

 found near Pniel (No. 7 of the list), by a (xriqua. 



Mr. (xregory, in answer to this reply, explains some personal 

 remarks of his own, and admits the existence of Dicynodon relics 

 but soiUli of the district alleged by Dr. Atherstone. And thus 

 stood the matter till 1870. It now appears, that diamonds have 

 been found in vast qu.antities and that many magnificent and 

 valuable stones have been disinterred. They are found on the 

 surface of a calcareous conglomerate near the frontier of the 

 Orange E,iver territory, and are said to vary in weight from 6 to 

 13 carats, some of them reach 150 carats. The diamonds are 

 accompanied by garnet, topaz, and other hard minerals.* 



* The locality is at Puiel ou the Vaal River opposite Klipdrift (the territory 

 of the chief Waterboer), distant about 800 miles from Cape Town, where tho 

 weaiher is fiercely hot from all December to all March. It is much nearer te 

 Port Elizabeth eastward of Cape Town, the distance being about 496 miles. 

 But the difficulties in travelling are great. In November 1870, about 10,000 

 men were employed. Without mentioning an opinion as to the alleged value 

 of the diamonds fovmd, I may append here an extract from the Ilaurltius 

 Commercial Qazeiie of ISth November which is not without interest. 



" The latest telegraphic advicfs from the diamond-fields is that " at Hebron 

 they are picking them np at the rate of sixty diamonds per week." And at 

 Gonggong, or a little below that place, one man has found two diamonds, one 

 Talued at £40,000 and the other at £80,000. Of ordinary sized diamonds 

 reports come in daily. A man has just found a ten-carat one on an abandoned 

 kopje (hillock). Another, Mr. H. S. Jones, son of an auctioneer of Cape 

 Town, has unearthed one of 26 carats, woi'th about £8000. This he obtained 

 after ten days' work. He is on his way back to town to dispose of his find, 

 ■while a man who worked with him, named Lance, who came here from St. 

 Helena, remains, and continties working the claim in his partner's absence. 



The territory which is ascertained to be diamondiferous now fully extends 

 over 100 miles. As to the possibility of its exhaustion, to speak 

 of that, competent judges say is to speak of an event which may occur naxt 

 century, or perhaps a century hence. 



