No. 31.— 1885.] 



PLUMBAGO. 



173 



Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886, metamorphosed 

 into diamond " of purest ray serene," and try to conceive 

 the thing of beauty it would be, even if shrinkage in the 

 transformation process reduced its size to one-tenth or even 

 one-hundredth of the original bulk. Meantime it seems 

 curious that Ceylon, so rich in "precious stones,'\which with 

 all their brilliancy are simply crystallized and coloured clays, 

 should be utterly destitute of specimens of the king of all 

 gems, seeing that diamonds are found close by us in Southern 

 India, and in formations similar to those existing here : 

 laterite, occasionally, and especially in association with corun- 

 dum, which in Ceylon is so common and of which our most 

 precious sapphires and rubies are but higher forms. 



But of more value to Ceylon economically, beyond all 

 comparison, would be the real discovery amidst its rocks of 

 that form of carbon which ranks next to the diamond and 

 graphite, and which seems to be graphite and perhaps 

 diamond in a less altered form. It need scarcely be said 

 that coal is referred to. The late Dr. Gardner, of the 

 P6radeniya Royal Botanic Gardens who was eminently a 

 geologist, expressed a strong opinion to the effect that where 

 primitive rock— in our case gneiss— forms the surface 

 formation, it is hopeless to look for coal beneath. It is 

 true that in India coal has been discovered in formations or 

 positions where it never would be expected to occur in 

 Europe, But I am not aware that in any case coal has 

 been found underlying, or near the surface of, primitive 

 formations. The only important class of rock, so far as I 

 am aware, which is associated with our Ceylon gneiss, is 

 itself a primitive formation, and is to a certain extent a 

 carboniferous rock— I refer to the crystalline magnesian 

 limestone known as dolomite ; this rock contains, in vary- 

 ing, sometimes in large proportion, carbonate of lime, but 

 in that respect alone has it the remotest affinity to coal. 



Werecoal really, whether the so-called bituminous mineral 

 or the more highly crystallized form called anthracite, to 

 be found in association with this lime and with our abundant 

 plumbago and fine clays, then indeed might the " millions of 

 tons of iron" of which JDr. Gygax wrote nearly forty years 

 ago, and which he said could be laid down at Colombo 

 for little over £6 a ton (with native anthracite at only 18s. 



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