Page:A treatise on diamonds and precious stones including their history Natural and commercial.djvu/86

 gathered; but he could not find any that at all resembled them in regularity. After some time the number of these stones augmented, and all persons in the habit of amusing themselves with cards, possessed a larger or smaller number, which circulated among them without exciting the least surmise as to their real worth.

currency of the country was gold dust, in various quantities, as an eighth of an ounce, half an ounce, &c., and of course, small scales were in very general use. The officer already mentioned, conceived the idea of weighing one of these counters against a pebble of equal size; and having done so, he found that the weight of the one considerably exceeded the weight of the other. He then tried to make an impression upon one of these counters, by rubbing it on a stone with water; but it resisted all his efforts, while a plane was produced on the pebble by the