Page:A treatise on diamonds and precious stones including their history Natural and commercial.djvu/72

 mountains it is fair to presume that they may. occur in others of a similar character. For ascertaining this, the experiment is easy, and demands no expenditure of capital for excavating ground either by labor or machinery. The mining for Diamonds is a much more simple operation. The mode of proceeding would be as follows: I should endeavour to procure some of the alluvium from the bottom of one of the deepest places in the rivulet; or if any little sand-bank appeared dry, I should remove the sand and mud from the surface, and scrape the gravel up, continuing this operation until I came to the solid rock, which is seldom more than two or three feet below the surface, and frequently only a few inches. I should begin the examination by putting a shovel-full of it into a bowl, commonly called by the miners a gamella, which is about 18 inches in diameter, and 10 deep, of a conical form, tapering to a point; having filled up the vessel with