A "CAT'S EYE" SEVEN POUNDS IN WEIGHT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2701, 2 November 1889, Page 5 (Supplement)

A "CAT'S EYE" SEVEN POUNDS IN WEIGHT.

A correspondent of a Ceylon paper writes : "I was talking toa well-known getnmer who hails from the other side of Galle, and he says that he has seen the large cat's eye, the finding of which was recently recorded. It is the finest stone he has ever seen, he says, and he doubts if a better one has been discovered anywhere. It weighs 61b. and 6 rupees, and ia of about the size of a 71b, weight. The finder, he gave me to understand, is a Moorman, who for a very long time found his digging very unprofitable ; but at length his perseverance was rewarded by the find of n cat's eye which realised over £1,000 sterling. Shortly after this he came on another which brought him iu ovtr £2,000, ami then he finished up the gigantic stone about which so much talk has been made He has been offered £19,000 for it by a syndicate of Moormen, but he declines to part with it at that figure, saying that if he liked he could cut it up into about 40 small pieces, and sell each piece for £1,000. A little time ago he found a larger cat's eye than this one, but the ray was not good, so that it is nothing like so valuable. Cat's eyes, my friend added, are contimt. ally being come upon which fetch fro n £40 to over £100, and a syndicate Ina been formed in Galle to carry out gemming operations there. The stones are all found on the wash-soil at a depth of from 12ft. to 10ft., and a licence to gem can bo obtained for only lOrs. The discovery of the mammoth stone has had the effect of causing a great number of Moormeu to make their way to the place, until they are now so numerous as to warrant one iu saying that every bush grows one. They pop out suddenly, he says, from behind a hedge, always with the same inquiry, namely, ' got any stones to sell ?' Altogether it looks as though gemming is flourishing 'down South.'"