The Matrix of the Diamond.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1994, 18 April 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Matrix of the Diamond.

Until the S >uth African mines were diicovered the diamond was always found in sands and gravels, different from the mineral in which it wa3 believed to be formed. At Griqualand West, however, the consolidated eruptive mud of the mines was believed by some to bo the true matrix of the diamond ; but opinions! differed on tho quebtion, and arguments were found on both sides. M. Cliaper, a French geologist, ha*, however, during a scientific mission to Hmdostan, sucecded in finding the diamond in ils mother rock. At Naizam, near Bellary, in the Madras Presidency, M Chaper has found tha diamond in a matrix of rose ppgmatite, where it ia associated with corrundum. Tho tract of country is almost denuded of trees, bare and rocky, and tho rains wasting the rooks, every year expose freah diamonds in the soil. The rock is traversed by veins of feldspar and epidotiferous quart?.. Here tho diamond is ftlwaya found, associated with epidotiferous rose pegmatite* The diamond crystals observed are octahedral, but less distinct in lino than the stonea of South Africa, which seem to have been formed in a freer matrix. It follows from M. Chaper'a discovery that diamonds may exist in all rocks arising from the destruction or erosion ef pigmatite, for example, in quart/.ites with or without mica, clays, pudding Btones, etc