SOUTH AFRICAN DIAMOND FIELDS

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 129, 18 August 1871, Page 5

SOUTH AFRICAN DIAMOND FIELDS

The following extract Prom a letter from a clergym m at the diamond fields was recently published : We met at dinner a Mr. It , muiager of one of the South African banks. He had that very day received from a digger a most magnificent diamond for safe custody in the bank chest. It is one 01 those extraordinary and find* which now and then occur. The diamond weighs 24* carats —nearly as much as the iCoh-i-noor in its present form —is said to be a perfect sjwii. and to be worth probably between c£3.\00.) and £40,000. Th's diamond lias been turned out of' its hiding place unfler a stone, where it has, perhaps, bun for a thousand veais o more, by a !oruinate diuger inmed Foster. The diamond is truly a magnificent gem—. in size about the bigness of a walnut, only differently shaped. It is a perfectly pure gem of the first water, free from spots or flsiws, and of a delicate str.iw color. What will be its history no one can tell. It will not bean easy master to find a purchaser for it, for few pe.ple can afford to give £SO 000 for a single stone, and 1 daresay the diamond merchants in Europe, into whose hands it will probably paRS, will ask quite that sum We have seen dozens of smaller ones fromtheaizeofapin's head upwards ; but this is the largest yet, and is, indeed, the largest, save one, yet discovered in the fields. Jt is the property of three persons who were working in partnership together, at a place called Hope, about ten miles from Ivlip Drift. This place has only been worked nince Christmas, it being only then discovered that it was a diamond-producing locality. At this moment probably as many as 2000 persons are encamped on the spot, wuere prior to Christmas day there was not a wugle tent.