THE MATRIX OF THE DIAMOND.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5052, 23 March 1885, Page 2

THE MATRIX OF THE DIAMOND.

Until the South African mines were discovered, the diamond was always found 4| in sands and gravels, different from the mineral in which it was believed to be formed. At Griqualand West, however, the consolidated eruptive mud of the mines was believed by some to be the true matrix of the diamond ; but opinioni differed on the question, and arguments were, found on both sides. M". Chaper, a French geologist, has, however, during a scientific mission to Hindoitan, succeeded ia finding the diamond in its . mother rock. At Naizam, near Bellary, in the Madras Presidency, M. Chaper has found the diamond in a matrix of rose pegmatite, where it is associated with corrundum. The tract of country is almost denuded of trees, bare and rooky, and the rains wasting the rocks every year expose fresh diamonds in the soil. The rook is traversed, by veins of feld» spar and epidotiferous quartz. Here the diamond is always found associated with, epidotiferons rose pegmatite. The diamond crystals observed are ootahedral, but less distinct in line than the atones of South Africa, which seems to have beea formed in a freer matrix. It follows from M. Chaper's discovery that diamonds may exist in all rocks arising from this: destruction or erosion of pegmatite, for example, in quartzites with or without mica, clays, pudding stones, etc. .. --.