APPENDIX. 61 



three shown at the Exhibition of the produce of Algiers. They 

 were found in the Groumel Eiver, in the province of Constantino, 

 and were given np in payment to M. Peluzo, the Sardinian Consul 

 at Algiers, by an Arab who wished to know their value, stating 

 that they were found in the sand of the Goumel Eiver with gold. 

 One of these is deposited in the School of Mines at Paris ; the 

 second was purchased by M. Brongniart for the Museum of 

 Natural History ; and the third by M. de Dree. The Arab had 

 several others. M. Eozet says, however, that he had acquaintance 

 with the jewellers of Algiers, and had never heard of diamonds 

 found in the province. The facts stated are on the authority of 

 M. Dufrenoy and the Secretary of the Greological Society of 

 Prance. . (IV. 164, YI. xv.) 



In Southern Africa diamonds were reported to have been 

 discovered in 1867. After the announcement of the new find, 

 Mr. Grregory, a well-known London mineralogist, who went to 

 Africa on behalf of the great diamond merchant, Mr. Emanuel, 

 sent to the Editor of the Geological Magazine (December, 1868) 

 an article denying the statement, and declai'ing it a "hoax," 

 "imposture," or a "bubble scheme." To this Dr. W. G-. Ather- 

 stone, E.Gr.S., a resident of Graham's Town, Cape of Good Hope, 

 replied (May, 1869), refuting the charge, and declaring that 

 twenty-one diamonds were known to have been found either on 

 private or Government land, and thirteen of these v/ere bought 

 by persons of credibility, one of them the Governor of the Colony, 

 and another by a lapidary. Dr. Atherstone contradicts Mr. 

 Gregory's account of the geology of the district, the latter 

 asserting that all the rocks are igneous or their derivatives, 

 and the former declaring that the rocks are fossiliferous, of the 

 dicijnodon beds (which by the way brings them into relation with 

 some of our Australian rocks) ; and that Mr. Wyley (an accepted 

 geological authority) had, years before this controversy, shown 

 that there was an intimate relationship with the Indian diamond 

 region of Bangnapilly, and that Dr. Shaw had described the African 

 district in the Graliani's Town Journal of the 20th January, 1869, 

 pointing out also the same resemblance. 



In the " Journal of the Society of Arts," of the 13tli Pebruary, 

 1869, is a list of the diamonds by Mr. Chalmers ; who, as well as 

 Mr. Radeloff, a Missionary, asserts that one of them was found 

 near Pniel (No. 7 of the list), by a Griqua, 



Mr. Gregory, in answer to this reply, explains some personal 

 remarks of his own, and admits the existence of dicynodon relics 

 but SQidli of the district alleged by Dr. Atherstone. And thus 

 stood the matter till 1870. It now appears that diamonds have 

 been found in vast quantities, and that many magnificent and 

 valuable stones have been disinterred. They are found on the 

 surface of a caicareous conglomerate, near the frontier of the 



