100 THE BINGEEA DIAMOND FIELD. 



loads (of one ton) of wash-dirt, and they have now by them 

 some 11,000* glisterinoj pebbles, ready to transmit to Amsterdam, 

 Paris, or some other European continental market ; alid areat 

 present making extensive arrangements for the formation of three 

 more dams and puddling apparatus on other parts of their land 

 where good supplies of water are to be found. He also gives the 

 following as the find of Messrs. M'Caw and Westeott : — tip to the 

 week ending July 12, 100 diamonds ; up to the week ending July 

 19, 113 diamonds ; up to the week ending July 26, 119 diamonds 

 —total Q22r— Herald, August 21, 1873. 



The only minerals found at Mudgee which have not yet been 

 discovered at Bingera are cinnabar and vesicular pleonaste. Bin- 

 gera in turn seems to possess one or two characteristics, such as 

 the magnesite containing the nodules of limonite —these are per- 

 fectly spherical at times — and the " morlops" form of jasper. As 

 these are nothing more than small jasper pebbles, careful search 

 would probably prove their presence in most river drifts con- 

 taining rolled jasper. 



From the foregoing we see that the diamond in Australia is 

 associated with sandstones, shales, conglomerates, and trap-rocks ; 

 and, perhaps, it would not be amiss just to see if this be the case 

 in other Countries. Thus, in the Brazils, in Bahia, the matrix 

 of the diamond is said undoubtedly to be a tertiary sandstone. 

 Burton,t in his book on the Highlands of Brazil, states that it 

 occurs in itacolumite, a metamorphosed pala?ozoic rock ; but this 

 statement requires confirmation. This, however, is known indis- 

 putably, — that they occur in the alluvial drifts of various kinds 

 similar to those of Xew South Wales. 



Diamonds found on the Cuddapah Hills in India are stated to 

 occur in a conglomerate, and between Sangor and Mirzapore in a 

 solid sandstone, and also in a ferruginous conglomerate ; and in 

 a gravel at Cuddapore containing pebbles of trap, granite, schist, 

 quartz, jasper, sandstone, and also of the neighbouring limestone; 

 basalt also is found near by. 



And at Bangnapilly the diamond is said to have been found in 

 a sandstone, together with corundum and magnetite, as well as in 

 breccia, and the slates there are flinty. The district of Kumarea 

 and Bridgepore is conglomeratic, and associated with sandstone 

 beds. Other diamond-bearing localities of India also are con- 

 glomeratic. 



In Russia, too, conglomerates seem to be the present receptacle 

 of the diamond ; iridium is there associated ■nith it. 



Borneo — again here we find it in a conglomerate containing 

 quartz, &c., and associated with gold, platinum, and osmiridium. 



* (1,100 Query ?) f See vol. II, p. 144. 



