52 The American Geologist. January, 1903 
millan Co., 1902), adds qne more to a lon^ list of titles and 
presents the subject, so far as South Africa, at least, is con- 
cerned, in a manner never yet equaled for attractiveness and 
thoroughness. The work comprises 681 royal octavo pages, 
with 29 photogravure plates, 11 maps, and nearly 500 figures 
in the text. There is space here, certainly, for a satisfactory 
review of the subject, and it has been, apparently, well utilized. 
Numerous references to other writers and the fact that the 
writer is general manager of the De Beers Consolidated Mines 
tend to give the work an air of authority which it might not 
otherwise possess. 
The book begins with an account of the ancient Adamas, 
the references to the diamond in early scriptural and profane 
literature, a chapter on the traditional Ophii Land, including 
a history of the various settlements in South Africa and the 
final crowding out of the Boers from the Cape Colony by the 
British and their trekking into the Transvaal. The stories of 
the experiences of these hardy emigrants and their conflict? 
with the natives read almost like the early histories of the 
western emigrants in our own country. 
The matter of the early discovery of the diamond is taken 
up in considerable detail and the account which the writer 
seems to regard as most authentic is the one which has here- 
tofore often found its way into print. It tells of the finding 
by a farmer's child of one little white stone, which was carried 
home and left carelessly lying about upon the floor until dis- 
covered by a neighbor, Schalk van Niekerk, to whom it was 
given by the mother of the child, and who subsequently placed 
it in the hands of a traveling trader, John O'Reilly. From 
O'Reilly it passed into the keeping of the acting Civil Com- 
missioner at Colesberg, Mr. Lorenzo Boyes, and then to Dr. 
Atherstone at Grahamstown, by whom it was finally identified 
as a diamond. This finding, however, failed to create any great 
sensation, and it was nearly ten months later that a second one 
was found, and this at a point some thirty miles distant. 
In ^Nlarch, 1869, a superb white diamond weighing 83^^ 
carats was picked up by a Griqua shepherd boy at Zendfontein 
near the Orange river. This also passed into the hands of 
Schalk van Niekerk, who paid for it five hundred sheep, ten 
oxen, and a horse, and subsequently sold it for £11,200 to Lil- 
