THE ALFORD FOREST DIAMONDS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 947, 19 May 1883, Page 2

THE ALFORD FOREST DIAMONDS.

Professor Von Haast has reported of the supposed diamonds submitted to him for testing as follows: —“Some short time ago Mr Wickes submitted to me some wash-dirt and rocks from the supposed diamond fields in the Ashburton district. After careful ex-: animation I obtained the following re-: suit:—The rock is a quartz porphyry,' somewhat decomposed, containing quartz in crystals and grains and crystals

of tanidine (yliafesy felspar) -and of garnets. The-w Ash-dirt consists of the disintegrated rock with some small worn pieces of sandstone j infixed withit are numerous smalt, crystals and grains of the>-above-mentioned minerals, but I could not find the least sign of any diamonds = amongst .lhem. Having previously examined -some of Mr Jacobsen's supposed, diamonds ' with the same negative-result, I was very , anxious that Professor George Ulrich in Dunedin, without doubt one of the most eminent mineralogists in Australasia, should examine them, and I therefore requested Mr Jacobsen to entrust some of his stones considered by him to be diamonds, to me for that purpose, which he did at once most readily. Although the small crystals he gave me appeared at a first glance |to belong to the regular system (in which the diamond crystallizes), their hardness being less than corundum did not tally with that of diamonds, an observation I was able to make before packing them in Mr Jacobsen’s presence for transmission to Dunedin. I now beg to transcribe Professor Ulrich’s answer:

—‘ If the two crystals from Mr Jacobsen’s locality are genuine representatives of his diamonds, I am sorry to say he is grievously mistaken in their character. I pronounce them unhesitatingly as quartz. One is a perfect double hexagonal pyramid ; the other, also a double hexagonal pyramid, is less symmetric, showing the X and rhomboedrons not quite in equilibrium. Both crystals are doubly refracting and softer than topaz. Crystals of the kind frequently occur in quartz-porphyries sometimes also in granular limestone.’ Mr Jacobsen deserves great credit for his pluck and perseverence, but I fear that there is little hope, judging • from the material, now repeatedly examined, of obtaining diamonds from the rocks of the district to which Mr Jacobsen has devoted so much of his time and energy. Yours, etc., Julius von Haast. Canterbury Museum, May 18th, 1883.” -• . •