AJ!fNIVERSAKT ADDRESS. 9 



I may add here tliat tlie minerals alluded to, in a note to the 

 above quotation by Mr. Hartt, as having been determined by 

 M. Damour, were previously referred to in my Address of 1870 

 (p. 17 and p. 19 of our Transactions), in connection with the 

 Cudgegong diamonds. 



As to the amount of diamonds found up to 1870 in the pro- 

 vince of Bahia, Hartt tells us that in the Serra do Sincora they 

 were found over an extent of twenty leagues. " A very rich 

 deposit," he says, "has been discovered within the last few years 

 at Sincora, and the city has grown to a large size. The City of 

 Lencoes, the head quarters of a diamond district (to which the 

 map will show there is a branch railway) is a large and important 

 place, and in the vicinity great quantities of diamonds are 

 washed." 



Castlenau says these diamonds occur amidst the vast detritus 

 of conglomerates cemented by black paste, and are regular in 

 shape, with exception of octahedrons. Burton, whose exhaustive 

 work on the Highlands of Brazil I have only recently perused, 

 states that at Chique Chique they occur in Itacolumite, but 

 Hartt marks this as doubtful. He considers the rock to be of 

 the same character as that of the diggings at the Chapada. 



It aj)pears that from 1862 to 1865, notwithstanding an enor- 

 mous amount of smuggling, there passed through the Custom- 

 house at Bahia diamonds to the value of 4,505,850 dollars ; and, 

 according to Burton, one weighing 76| carats from the Chapada, 

 brought 30 contos, or nearly £30,000 sterling. The annual pro- 

 duction is set down by Hartt as worth 3,000,000 dollars. 



I may mention here that the railway crosses the diamond 

 district near Len9oes, and that a branch goes up from Bahia to 

 Alagoinhas, about 40 miles to the north ; so that any persons 

 from these Colonies who may happen to touch at Bahia may find 

 easy conveyance in a land that is otherwise very difficult and 

 inconvenient to traverse, 



