SOUTH AFRICAN DIAMOND FIELDS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 843, 29 July 1871, Page 3

SOUTH AFRICAN DIAMOND FIELDS.

The following extract from a lette from a clergyman at the diamond field was recently published in tho " Stand ard":—"We met at dinner a M R , manager of one of our Soutl African banks. He had that very da; received from a digger a most magni ficent diamond for safe custody in thi bank chest. It is one of those extra ordinary and startling finds which nov and then occur. The diamond weigh; 24 carats —nearly as much as th< Koh-i-noor in its present form—is sau to be a perfect gem, and to be wortl probably between £30,000 am £40,000. This diamond has beei turned out of its hiding place under i stone, where it has perhaps, lain for i thousand years or more, by a fortunate digger named Foster—such at least ie what we are told. Mr R had invited us all to go and see this diamond We went, as arranged, to see the diamond, and it is truly a most magnificent gem —in size about the bigness of a walnut, only differently shaped being a tolerably regular octahedroi with the corners a little rounded off. It is a perfectly pure gem of the firsl water, free from spots or flaws, and oi a delicate straw colour. "Wo speak o: " rough diamonds ;" and the idea i; perhaps pretty generally prevalent thai diamonds in their natural state art rough in appearance and feel, anc dingy and discolored, needing to b« well polished and scraped before theii beauty appears. This is far from being the case. Most of the diamonds are as clear as crystal and free from externa' defect when first taken out of the gravel in which they are found, and might be set in rings and bracelets as they are without anything at all being done to them. This diamond is such a one, and in its present state would be a fitting jewel for a royal diadem. What will be its history no ono can foresee. It will not be an easy matter to find a purchaser. for it, for few people can afford to give £50,000 for a single stone, and I dare say the diamond merchants in Europe, into 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 discovered in the fields. It is the property of three persons who were working in partnership together, at a place called Cawood's Hope, about ten miles from Klip Drift. This place has only been worked since Christmas, it being only then discovered that it was % diamond-producing locality. At this moment probably as many as 2000 persons are encamped on the spot, where prior to Christmas day there svas not a single tent, and altogether the finds have been very numerous, ind tho diamonds unusually large, though there, as everywhere else, it is i complete lottery, and many have been digging up to this time to no purpose, whilst others are just paying their expenses and no more.