Page:A treatise on diamonds and precious stones including their history Natural and commercial.djvu/97

 and still remains to be worked, and I conceive that there would be no difficulty in calculating the length of time in which the present number of workmen may reduce it to a state of exhaustion, like that of the far-famed Golconda. The average annual produce of future years may be estimated on the ratio of the amount obtained from that portion which has been already worked. Brazil may be said to furnish Europe with 25,000 or 30,000 carats per annum, of rough diamonds, which, if reduced to brilliants, may make an influx into the market, of 8,000 or 9,000 carats annually.

Diamond mines in Brazil belong to the Crown; and any trade whatever in these gems, even the possession of one, is declared contraband, and is visited with the severest punishment. Yet they are not unfrequently offered for sale by private individuals who contrive to pass the guards, and convey them from the