EOLIAN GEOLOGY 
167 
first period combined with wave-action along an ancient shore¬ 
line. The topography of the Pomona area is somewhat rugged, 
and this first-period river channel has been removed to inland 
points. The former rivers were probably intermittent, flood riv¬ 
ers as are those today, and materials brought down toward the 
coast by them were reworked by the winds concurrently, as now. 
“That the present wide distribution of the diamonds has been 
accomplished by wind transportation is unquestionable. The dia¬ 
monds of the Pomona area gradually decrease in size northward 
from the old river deposits in that region; then again, about the 
mouths of the river channels of the several periods, in the Eliza¬ 
beth Bay region, coarse diamonds are found, thence gradually 
decreasing in size northward to the limits of the field. In the 
latter region it is clear that the winds have moved and redeposited 
the diamonds and other associated materials for a distance of fifty 
kilometers, or over thirty miles, and fine sands several times furth¬ 
er. This is not at all astonishing to one who visits the fields and 
watches the wind in operation. Its most important economic 
effect has been a concentration of diamonds which is largely re¬ 
sponsible for the payability of the fields. As the sands and grav¬ 
els advance northward, barren fine sands are removed and carried 
beyond to a great group of dunes. These are of such size as to 
resemble a mountain range, and this vast bulk of worthless mate¬ 
rial has been removed by nature from the diamond deposits.’' 
Now, according to the well-known laws of desert elutriation, if 
sufficient time be allowed, considerable areas amounting to square 
miles perhaps, might result in the formation of typical desert 
pavements, or mosaics, in which the gravel would be composed 
chiefly of diamonds. This method of concentration has no rivals 
among human efforts. An acre of such desert pavement would 
contain about fifty millions of the region’s average-size stones. 
At prevailing prices this diamond carpet of the desert would have 
a value of five billions of dollars per acre. Since the Government 
holds something like 500 square miles of these diamondiferous 
gravels, has a like area for entry, and already has under lease to 
private corporations about 200 square miles, it is evident that the 
Germans in pre-war days neglected their geologists fully as much 
as they did during the Great War when they put the scientists in 
the firing line along side of meanest peasant, instead of in posts 
