APPENDIX. 55 



earth, variable in thickness and position as are the beds with 

 which it is associated. It appeared to Mr. Medlicott to be 

 somewhat of a puzzle where to place the conglomerate among 

 the regular beds, and he considers the ferruginous element to 

 be subseqent to the deposition. The beds thin out and thicken 

 remarkably. The natives seem to have ascertained the limits of 

 the diamond area, owing probably to the beds dying out. The 

 base of the hills has not been tried. 



As to the origin of the diamond, he does not think the 

 stratum in which it is found is its native bed. He saw no 

 diamonds in sitio, but, from what he learned of the labourers, " the 

 diamonds came as pebbles with the rest ." Quartz pebbles of any 

 kind are rare. The most prominent pebbles are sub-angular red 

 and white shale, and of what ]jVanklin calls " green quartz," which 

 is elsewhere described by Mr. Medlicott as " glazed or semi- 

 vitrified sandstone." Pieces of the calcareo-silicious bottom 

 rock, of the size of boulders, occur also. One of the workmen 

 confirmed his opinion, that the occurrence of these pebbles 

 indicated the presence of the gem, and that " they themselves 

 contained diamonds and were hroJcen np^' as ore, or, rather, as 

 gangue. 



In a section just north of the mines, 20 feet of regular beds 

 of cherty and compact limestone rest on 50 feet of alternating 

 sandstone and shale, based on rich syenite ; the cherty and jaspery 

 condition of some of the more vitrified beds is shown by another 

 section to be due to a " modifying influence." It is supposed 

 that these beds are the sources of the boulders in the diamond 

 conglomerate. 



Besides these diggings the great majority are said to be alluvial. 



On the Eewa escarpment, in the Vindhyan region, they are at 

 the heads of valleys descending from the plateau, where kunkery 

 and lateritic clays pass into a mixture of clay, gravel, and boulders, 

 increasing to great angular blocks of sandstone, between which 

 the diamonds are found. Diggings occur also on the slopes. In 

 one place men were seen removing 12 feet of dark brown clayey 

 sand to get at the boulder bed, the base of which is richest. 



" The limited distribution of the transported diamonds was 

 more puzzling" to Mr. Medlicott than that of the rock. He 

 thinks there are indications beyond the area that is worked. 



The conclusion is that the open valleys of Eewah are not 

 altogether due to atmospheric and river action ; the whole must 

 have been under water when these diamonds were washed into 

 their position. " If," says the author, " the diamond is but a 

 pebble in the conglomerate," then, on the other hand, there is 

 every chance of further discoveries, " since quartz grains of 

 similar size with the diamonds are abundant, and there are other 

 sufficient proofs of the recent submergence of the country." 

 (p. 75.) 



