ANNIVEESAET ADDRESS. 13 



It may be asked, perchance, what is the use of diamouds if 

 found in such abundance as in Brazil and Africa r "Would they 

 not lose their commercial value if they were to become so common 

 that every person we met should possess a diamond ring ? 



Such a condition of things is not likely, though in Brazil and 

 in the Union of North America many persons of inferior rank 

 make great displays of them. Looking at a valuable diamond 

 as always retaining its value, it is a fax more convenient means of 

 transporting property than any other.* 



Captain Burton has collected, in his "Notes on the Diamond," 

 some interesting commercial facts as to the fluctuations in the 

 price of diamonds. 



" Castelnau" (II, 345), he says, predicts "that at the end of 

 the present century the diamond will be worth only twenty per 

 cent, of its value in 1800" ; but he adds : — " I venture to say 

 that, unless stone can be manufactured, the reverse will approach 

 nearer the truth." 



"We must not, however, regard the diamond as a mere article of 

 luxury. It is destined to come into active use when its multiplica- 

 tion by means of increased searchers for it shall have become a 

 hundredfold. It is even now employed in difS.cult engineering 

 operations. The tunnel through the hard rocks of Mont Cenis — ■ 

 one of the marvels of the present age — was greatly advanced by 

 the use of diamonds used as boring points on properly adjusted 

 tools, when set in motion by a very simple contrivance. The 

 originator of this diamond-drill was Monsieur E,. Leschot, a civil 

 engineer of Greneva, resident in Paris. His contrivance was first 

 employed by Erench engineers at Pistoia, in Italy, on the Bologna 

 Eailway. After the first expense, the renewal of the diamonds 

 constitutes the whole charge. It is clear, therefore, that not only 

 is a new method obtained of cutting hard rocks, but means are 

 found for the utilizing and disposal of a vast amount of small 



* See Bxirton, " Highlands of Brazil" vol. II, p. 149, and generally liis 

 chapter X, from which I borrow a few notea in the Appendix (Bj. 



