58 APPENDIX. 



from rocks older than the Carboniferous. As they everywhere 

 exist in limited areas, it would also be a fair inference that as 

 there is no want of carbon, and similar agencies must operate 

 over enormous regions, the limited range of diamond is a strong 

 argument against its recent production. If the facts advanced 

 by several of the authorities whom I have quoted are received, 

 then diamond must have undergone processes similar to those 

 that have resulted in the formation of gems of which there is no 

 dispute as to probable age. 



It is remarkable how silent observers in general in India are as 

 to the multiplicity of such gems and other extraneous minerals 

 in the Indian diamond regions. Yet Mr. Carter names quartz, 

 jasper, lydian stone, epidote, micaceous iron, garnets,- and 

 corundum, derived from rocks of different ages. 



There is another interesting locality near Grungpur, on the 

 northern frontier of Orissa, on a river running to the Bay of 

 Bengal, north of Kuttak ; but I have no accurate knowledge of 

 its history. 



To these remarks on Indian diamond beds, I have only to add 

 that in 1867 I had the honor of a visit from an officer of the 

 Bengal Army, whose official position gave him great opportunities 

 of acquaintance with the country, and who came to this Colony 

 on a tour of inspection to examine our railways and coal-beds ; 

 and from him I learned that the Vindyhyan coagiomerate is 

 chiefly made up of jasper, chalcedony, specular iron, and a green 

 rock, which latter -lies en masse on granite; that the diamonds 

 are of all colours — rose, yellow, brown, black, and pale green — 

 which last, being the favourite or national colour of the followers 

 of Mahomet, causes the green diamond to find a ready sale, whilst 

 the others are neglected. In size they are that of a hazel nut or 

 larger. But, he added, that in the diamond districts the people 

 are wretched ; they tliink and talk of little but diamonds, which 

 they often swallow if not watched. 



DIAMONDS IN ETJSSIA. 



Russia is a country- in which diamonds are also found, but 

 sparingly, as near Bissersk and Chrestovodsvingensk, in the Ural 

 chain ; the deti'itus in which they occur being made up of angular 

 fragments of chloritic, talcose, and quartzose rocks. The former of 

 these places was mentioned in 1831 in the " Grornoi" Journal of 

 Petersburg ; and in 1839 Baron von Meyendorf stated to the 

 Greological Society of France that diamonds had been discovered 

 in two different localities, and that they had been found in a 

 microscopic form in native iridium, v/hich had been brought to 

 Paris. {Bull, II., 314.) 



