SOUTH AFRICAN DIAMOND FIELDS.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2656, 22 August 1871, Page 3

SOUTH AFRICAN DIAMOND FIELDS.

The following extract from a letter from a clergyman at the diamond fields was recently published:— We met at dinner a Mr R , manager of one of the South African banks. He had that very day received from a digger a mn-t magnificent diamond for safe custody in the bank chest. It is one of these extraordinary and startling finds which nowand then occur. The diamond weighs 24 carats—nearly as much as the Koh-i-noor in its present fotm - is said to be a perfect gem, and worth pro bably between 1.30,000 and L 40.000. This diamondhas been turned outof its hiding place under a stone, where it has, perhaps, lain for a thousand years or more, by a fortunatedigger named Foster. The diamond is truly a magnificent gem—in size about the bigness of a walnut, only differently shaped. It is a porfctly pure gem of the first water, free from spots or flaws, and of a delicate straw color. What will bo its history no one can tell. It will not be an easy matter to find a purchaser for it, for few people can afford to give 1.50,000 for a single stone, and I daresay the diamond merchants in Europe, in l o whose hands it will probably pass, will ask quite that sum We have seen dozens of smaller ones from the size of a pin’s head upwards ; but this is the largest yet, and is, indeed, the largest, save one, yet discovere lin the fields, It is the property of three persona who were working in partnership together, at a place called CJawood’s Hope, about ten miles from Klip Drift. This place has only been worked since Christmas, it being only then discovered that it was a diamond-pro-ducing locality, At this moment probably as many as 2000 persons are encamped on the spot, where prior to Christinas day there was not a single tent.