APPENDIX. 41 



wLich are probably not indigenous there, Have also been forwarded 

 from the same neiglibourbood, I have much hesitation in accepting 

 the statements made. 



A further announcement was made to me in 1870, of diamonds 

 on the Darling, a few miles from Port Bourke, but on examining 

 a large collection of the pebbles consigned to the Commercial 

 Banking Company as "diamonds" and "precious stones," I 

 found that they were all varieties of silica (quartz, jasper, agate, 

 chalcedony), with small highly polished fragments of fossil wood 

 and other drift. 



Probably no other person has had more experience of this kind 

 than myself, for I have at times been almost overwhelmed with 

 applications, personally or in writing, upon the subject. Dr. 

 Thomson has also had his own experience of similar occupation, 

 and in many instances is well able to confirm my statement. 



One might almost fancy that colonists were going mad in the 

 search for diamonds ; and yet one digger confessed to me that, 

 from the labour of six men employed for six years, he had only 

 obtained three diamonds, which were of small size. 



"Without wishing, then, to dishearten any diligent man who is, 

 whilst anxious to serve himself, doing his utmost to develoj) the 

 resources of the Country, it is surely only right to wa,rn any who 

 have only their personal labour and privations to look to, against 

 embarking in a search which, to be successful, requires ample 

 means, union of energies, and machinery. 



Moreover, the diamonds hitherto found have been but of little 

 commercial value ; and as to the other gems, I believe they have 

 realized scarcely any sale at all. Capital and time and con- 

 trivances may, however, hereafter meet with a successful find. 



Some of the inquirers as to diamonds have deserved a less 

 encouraging reception than this. It is with no unkind feeling 

 that I mention (merely to show the speculative character of the 

 present j/t«'o re) that, amongst the stones forwarded for examina- 

 tion have been found pieces of common glass,* portions of 

 chandeliers or bottle-stoppers, and some of these have been 

 disguised by grinding and colouring by paint. 



"With what object persons supposed to hold respectable posi- 

 tions in life could have condescended to such a device, merely to 

 give trouble to those who have voluntarily given their time and 

 experience to oblige them, is difficult to imagine. It seems to 

 me to be an unworthy reward for wasted patience, and not 

 unfrequently unreturned postage stamps and other expenses. 



* Professor Tkomson and myself were often puzzled by finding bits of a 

 Hue glass in collections of drift, till we traced tliem to the blue bottles in 

 which castor oil is sold. 



