Where Diamonds are Found

Horowhenua Chronicle, 20 December 1911, Page 4

Where Diamonds are Found

in the South. African diamond fields the gems are found in what iaro called "pipes," which, are round or oval stems oi ; a peculiar kind of rock, several acres in extent at the top. andi running down to unknown cLeptlis into the earth..Near the surface this rock, which is rich in iron, is distinguished by exposure to the weather, and assumes a yellowish, colour. The precious pebbles are readily extracted from the friable rook. Deeper down the "pipe" changes character. The rock becomes a comparatively hard, blue mass, more difficult to work. Yet it is still sprinkled through with diamonds, lying empedded 1 in the moulds where nature made them. This blue rock has to be exposed to the weather, or treated with water, before it will yield: up its treasures. Now it is clear from the nature and _ appearance of the diamondbearing rock that it is k>f volcanic origin, and the "pipes" are evidently the necks of ancient volcanoes, whose fires, died out probably thousands of years ago. "When we consider that the diamond burns, and is consumed! at a high temperature we cannot think that the gems contained in those anoient pipes of rock were brought here from the interior of the earth where the rock was in a molten condition. It is. far mtoe probable that under peculiar conditions of pressure and temperature they were formed where they are now found, while the rock was cooling off. It remains to be learned' what the real conditions <of' their formation were.