NOTES AND QUERIES. 
167 
museum at Rio Janeiro a fragment of pure quartz two or tliree inches in 
diameter contains two cavities, which are both filled with small fragments of 
quartz and oxide of iron, which are tirmly cemented by a clayey cement ; in 
one of the cavities a diamond is seen in the middle of the conglomerate. We 
have also been assured that near Diamantina diamonds have been found among 
the stones composing the little cylindrical tubes which certain wormlike insects 
of the mountains on the coast construct to protect themselves. 
Another remarkable fact which has not been previously noticed, is the dis- 
covery in the cascalho of small fragments of quartz having a form like an 
anvil. They have clearly been poKshed, and have therefore been constructed 
by the Indians, who used them as earrings. At Grao Mayor, M. Daniel 
Casimer Pinto-Coelho gave us one of these ; the cascalho in which it was 
found had never been worked or disturbed in any way, and formed the bed of 
a water-course nearly dried up ; it was even covered over by more than six 
yards of vegetable mould, on which beautiful palm trees were growing. The 
polished quartz ornaments are accompanied by other cut objects, principally 
arrow-heads ; bones also occur, of the nature of wliich we have not been able 
to pronounce. 
These traces of human industry met with in the virgin cascallio prove it to 
be of comparatively recent origin, consequently also the red race must be very 
ancient. It is to be hoped that the researches of Dr. Lund on the bones 
found in the neighbouring caverns will thi'ow some light upon this important 
question. 
We will point out two or three more names in common use. The cascalho 
of the old water-courses is called " Gupiara ;" that accumulated at the heads of 
the rivers "Tabuleira;" lastly "Corrido," is the name given to the half- 
rounded pebbles found in the present rivers. 
Itacolumite and metamorphic schist are, beyond doubt, the beds in which 
the diamond, and all other precious stones with which it is found originate. 
Nevertheless, these gems are not necessarily met witli, any more than the green 
tourmaline of Campo Longa and the realgar of Brimenthal are seen in all the 
dolomites of the Alps. The diamond is found in the mountains of itacolumite 
of Grao Mayor, also in the numerous streams which flow therefrom ; it exists 
equally in many other mountams of itacolumite, but it is too rare to be searched 
for with advantage. Thus, in the Serra do Cipo, in the basin of the San Tran- 
cisco, we have seen four diamonds which have been found in a small stream 
near the upper part of this Serra. On the other hand, the mountains of itaco- 
lumite do not necessarily contain diamonds, and in that of Itacolumi, which 
gives its name to the rock, diamonds are not found. To the present time the 
metamorphic and decomposed schist of San Joao or of Quinda is the only one 
in which the diamond has been observed ; but the large tract of the gurgulho 
do campo shows that this schist is very extensively spread, and it ought to con- 
tain diamonds in various localities. 
The following are some remarks that we have made on the distribution and 
associations of the minerals which accompany the diamond. 
The anatase is sometimes so pure and transparent that one is tempted to 
mistake it for the diamond. It is, besides, associated ■s\ith the sub-oxide of 
iron, and with rutile as well as brookite. ' 
The euclase is always found with the topaz, and in many places to the south 
of Ouro Prato it is in a kind of whitish clay, which seems a product of decom- 
position. There is also specular iron-ore and rutile, like that of Saint Gothard ; 
beautiful black tourmalines, hyaline and smoky quartz. These minerals are 
found, too, in the barro of San Joao, so that the latter appears identical with 
the whitish clay met with in the working of the topaz. The euclase is much 
rarer than the topaz, and as they no longer search foi- the latter for jewellery. 
