Diamonds Found in India

Occurrence of Diamond. Every dealer in precious stones should know something of the sources of the gems that he sells. The manner of the occurrence of the rough material is also a matter of interest. It will therefore be the purpose of this lesson to give a brief account of the geographical sources of the principal gems and of their mode of occurrence in the earth.

For the sake of uniformity of treatment we will once more follow the descending order of hardness among the gems and we thus begin by describing the occurrence of diamond. It will be of interest to note first that the earliest source of the diamond was India, and that for many years India was almost the sole source. Tavernier tells us that the diamond mining industry was in a thriving state during the years from 1640 to 1680, during which time he made six journeys to India to purchase gems. He speaks of Borneo as another source of diamonds, but most of the diamonds of that time were furnished by India.

"Golcondas." Indian diamonds were note-worthy for their magnificent steely blue-white quality and their great hardness, and occasionally one comes on the market to-day with an authentic pedigree, tracing its origin back to the old Indian mines, and such stones usually command very high prices. One of a little over seven and one half carats in weight, in the form of a perfect drop brilliant, has lately been offered for sale at a price not far from $1,000 per carat. Such diamonds are sometimes called "Golcondas" because one of the mining districts from which the fine large Indian stones came was near the place of that name. Some of the stones from the Jagersfontein mine in South Africa resemble the Golcondas in quality. Many of the large historical crown diamonds of Europe came from the Indian mines.

The stones were found in a sedimentary material, a sort of conglomerate, in which they, together with many other crystalline materials, had become imprisoned. Their original source has never been determined. They are therefore of the so-called "River" type of stone, having probably been transported from their original matrix, after the disintegration of the latter, to new places of deposit, by the carrying power of river waters.