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icieritiit 



VOL. 1. 



RIVERSIDE, CAL., OCTOBER, 1886. 



NO. 1. 



CALIFORNIA DIAMONDS. 



For a period of more than thirty 

 years the placer miners of CaHfor- 

 nia have occasionally picked up 

 small diamonds. The hydraulic 

 washings at Cherokee, Butte coun- 

 ty, have been the most prolific. The 

 diamonds are usually found by the 

 miners when cleaning up their slui- 

 ces or while washing off the bed 

 rock, though in some few instances 

 they have been picked up on the 

 surface. As a general thing the 

 gravel in which they occur is mixed 

 with lava, ashes, or other volcanic 

 matter; zircon, platinum, iridium, 

 magnetite, etc., being associated 

 with the diamonds. While many 

 of these stones have been of good 

 color, brilliant and perfect, none 

 weighing over 3^ carats have been 

 found in the state. In size they 

 have ranged usually from about 

 half a carat down to stones of mi- 

 croscopic dimensions, the latter be- 

 ing numerous in a few localities. 

 So far as known, $500 is the highest 

 price for which any California dia- 

 mond in the rough has been sold, 

 though -large numbers have found 

 purchasers at prices ranging from 

 $10 to $50, and not a few at as 

 much as $100. The stones have 

 been all colors, white, yellow, straw 

 and rose, and many of good water. 

 A few small diamonds have been 

 found also in the placer diggings of 

 Idaho, being of about the same 

 equality and occurring under the 



same conditions as in California. 

 In neither region have diamonui 

 been made the object of special 

 search, those found having beers 

 picked up by miners while washing 

 gravel for gold. FragiTients of dia- 

 monds have been noticed in the tail- 

 ings from the quartz mills, being 

 the remains of stones which have 

 been broken under tlie stamps. — 

 C. G. Yale, in ''Precious StonesT 



THE RESURRECTION 

 PLANT. 



This singular plant is really one 

 of the wonders of creation. Imag- 

 ine a bunch of w^ithered looking, 

 curled up shoots, brown, stiff, and 

 apparently dead, resembling a bird's 

 nest. Place it in water, in half an 

 hour what a transformation ! The 

 withered looking bunch has now 

 opened and is transformed into a 

 lovely patch of moss, entirely cov- 

 ering an ordinary plate. In its na- 

 tive habitat, when the dry season 

 sets in, the plant curls up into a 

 round ball and is wafted away by 

 winds from place to place, some- 

 times for hundreds of miles, when 

 at last it reaches a moist spot it 

 gradually unfolds itself, makes new 

 roots and thrives in its new found 

 home. This sensitiveness to mois- 

 ture is so great that even after the 

 plant may seem dead it will open 

 and close as if it were alive. — F. M. 

 GilJiavis Catalogue. 



