280 



Scientific Intelligence. 



with all the fabulous wealth the Persian host bore with them to Khoras- 

 san. From Nadir Shah it passed into the hands of his powerless repre- 

 sentative Shah Rokh ; but it was not one of the jewels afterwards ex- 

 torted from him by such frightful torture. The history of Ahmed Shah, 

 founder of the short-lived Douranee empire, is that of many other his- 

 toric names. The realms conquered by Nadir fell asunder at his death ; 

 and the Affghan, captain of his horse and lord of his treasure, secured 

 for himself the kingdoms surrounding his native passes, and erected them 

 into an empire, which extended from Moultan to Herat, from Peshawur 

 to Candahar. From his Affghan eyrie he descended to aid his old mas- 

 ter's son in the hour of his adversity, sealed an alliance with him, and 

 bore back the great diamond whose beauties " its blind owner could no 

 longer see," and which became once more an equivocal symbol of friend- 

 ship between sovereigns of whom the recipient of the diamond was the 

 stronger. From Ahmed Shah it descended with the throne to his sons. 

 The wild romance of Shah Soujah's life was in no small degree linked 

 with this gem. Long hidden in the wall of a fortress that had been Shah 

 Zemaun's prison, it shone on the breast of Shah Soujah when the Eng- 

 lish embassy visited Peshawur. Mahmoud reasserted with success the 

 claim of might to the empire of his brother, and Shah Soujah became an 

 exile. But his companion in that exile was the Koh-i-Noor, and, hunted 

 from Peshawur to Cashmere, and decoyed from Cashmere to Lahore, 

 Shah Soujah became in semblance the guest, in reality the prisoner, of 

 Runjeet the Lion. He disgorged the prize for the sake of which the lord 

 of the five rivers had inveigled him to his lair : and the ex-king of Cau- 

 bul and Douranee prince escaped the gripe of his savage tyrant only to 

 enter on adventures, the story of which might for incident and hardship 

 challenge the pages of romance. The Koh-i-Noor had again been true to 

 its tradition. It had passed from the weak to the strong under the sem- 

 blance of righteousness. " At what do you estimate its value V said 

 Runjeet to his victim. " At good luck," replied Shah Soujah, " for it 

 hath ever been the property of him that hath conquered his enemies." 

 The successors of Runjeet Sing inherited the Koh-i-Noor, and when the 

 Sikh power fell before the arms of England, which it had challenged, 

 the talisman of Indian sway passed from the treasury of Lahore to the 

 jewel-chamber of Windsor ; and reposes once again, as the proudest jewel 

 in the tiara of Indian empire. But it is no more the Mountain of Light. 

 It is no longer the finest diamond known in the world : it has been recut, 

 as well perhaps as it was possible to recut it*, and is now a brilliant, 

 weighing but 103 carats. Although no more the 8 mishkals of Dia- 

 mond that Baber valued at half the rent-roll of a world, it is the identi- 

 cal gem that has contributed its light to the glories of every dynasty that 

 has dazzled the East by the supremacy of its arms for perhaps a thousand 

 years. 



9. On the origin of Greensand, and its formation in the Oceans of the 

 present epoch ; by Prof. J. W. Bailey, (Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. v, 

 p. 364.) — As an introduction to the subject of this paper, it is proper to 

 refer to various observations which have been made of facts intimately 



* The artistic part of the work, performed by Dutch artists under the superintend- 

 ance of Messrs. Gerrard, the Queen's Jeweller, was admirably executed. 



