1876.] 
The Diamond in India . 
359 
in India generally, and especially in Golconda (the territory 
of Haydarabad), has been prematurely abandoned. In the 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the machinery for 
draining wet mines was not what it is now, and the imperfeCt 
appliances led to the general belief that all the deposits were 
purely superficial. Doubtless some of the deposits were in 
the alluvial soil of the most recent rocks, but M. Rosselet’s 
account shows that deep digging may still be practised to 
advantage. Voysey also saw the “ sandstone breccia ” 
(diamond conglomerate ?) of Southern India “ under 50 feet 
of sandstone, clay slate, and slaty limestone.'’ The Brazilian 
miners (“ Highlands,” ii., 121) have only lately learned to 
descend 180 feet, and they find some of their best stones 
at the lowest horizon. The Vaal River and other South 
African washings, opened in 1868, soon reached 60 feet. 
I had heard of chance diamonds being picked up by the 
accolents of the Krishna River, and Sir Salar Jung, with 
his usual liberality, proposed laying a dak for me to Raichor ; 
he was ready, in faCt, to meet my wishes in every possible 
way. I presently, however, learned from good authority 
that only crystalline rocks like those which I had seen in 
the Golconda tombs are produced by this central section of 
the Krishna, and that “ Itacolumite ” must be sought else- 
where. Evidently the precious stones have been rolled 
down from some unknown distance, and to follow the “ spoor” 
demanded more time than I could command. 
It is useless to insist upon the benefits of reviving the 
ancient industry. Haydarabad is not a rich country, and her 
trade is well nigh nil. But she has coal that wants only a 
market, and if to the “ black diamond ” she can add the 
white diamond, her future prospers are not to be despised. 
The first step is, of course, that of “ prospecting,” of sys- 
tematically reconnoitring the ground, with the aid of a few 
experienced hands imported from the Brazils and South 
Africa. If the search be successful a company or companies 
would be soon found to do the rest. For me it will be glory 
enough to have restored the time-honoured “ mines of Gol- 
conda.” 
We left at the week’s end the country of “ our faithful 
ally,” greatly pleased with the courtesy and hospitality 
which seem to be its natural growth. And I have a convic- 
tion that, despite the inevitable retrograde party of all 
native states, the codine of the East, — the warlike Zemin- 
dars, the “ dissolute vagabonds,” the “ Pathan bravos,” and 
the “ cut-throats and assassins ” of the Press, — this realm 
has become since 1857 the “ greatest Mohammedan power 
in India.” 
