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AUSTRALIAN DIAMONDS.

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AUSTRALIAN DIAMONDS. Diamonds are known to exist in considerable quantities in various parts of Australia. In New South Wales their existence was discovered so far back as 1851, but little notice was taken of the fact. In 18G7 numerous diamonds were found by gold diggers in the Mudgee district, and in 1869 diamond working was commenced in a systematic manner. The richest finds of diamonds have, however, been at Bingera, where during the last ten years many hundreds have been discovered, a circumstance which has led to a firm of diamond merchants commencing working operations on a more extended scale, The conditions under which the Bingera diamonds are obtained are much the same as at Mudgce, where the gems are procured from outliers of an old river drift which had in parts been protected from denudation by a capping of hard compact basalt. This drift is made up mostly of boulders and pebbles of quartz, jasper, agate, quartzite, flinty slate, silicified wood, slate, sandstone, and abundance of coarse sand mixed with more or less clay. Diamonds are also found in other parts of the colony. From the Borah Tin Mine, situated at the junction of Cope's Creek with the Gwydir, two hundred were obtained in a few months. Out of a batch of eighty-six, averaging one carat one grain each, the largest weighted 5.5 grains. Diamonds have been found on most of the alluvial tin workings at Cope's, Ncwstcad, vegetable, and Middle Creeks, also in the Stanifer, Ruby, and the Britannia Tin Mines, and elsewhere. In colour the diamonds vary from colourless and transparent to various shades of straw-yellow, brown, light green, and black. One of a rich dark green was found in the form of a flattened hemitrope octahedron. The most common crystalline forms which have been met with are the octahedron, the hemitrope octohedron, the rhombic dodecahedron, the triakis and hexakis octohedron, but they are all usually more or less rounded. The flattened triangular hemiotrope crystals are very common. One specimen of the deltoidal dodecahedron are met with. The lustre is usually brilliant or adamantine, but occasionally they have a dull appearance. This want of lustre is not due to any coating of foreign matter or to the same cause as the dulness of less hard and water-worn crystals, but it is due to the surface being covered with innumerable edges and angles belonging to the structure of the crystal. These reflect the light irre- gularly at all angles, and give the stone its frosted appearance.

EMIGRATION TO CANADA.

THE THREAT TO SHOOT THE PRINCE…

THE RE-AFFORESTATION of IRELAND

THE NAVY FIGHTING AND SEA-GOING…

-----THE IMPORTATION OF CATTLE…

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MRS. WELDON AND DR. FORBES…

---------iAFFRAYS IN IRELAND-

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IMR. PARNELL ON IRELAND.

THE QUEEN'S VISIT TO GERMANY.

THE CHARGE OF ASSAULTING A…

THE DEATH OF CETEWAYO.

------THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH…

.----------_-------SUPPOSED…

DEATH OF THE KHEDIVE'S MOTHER

A SERIOUS CHARGE WITHDRAWN.

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THE ALLEGED MURDER OF A MOTHER.

A REMARKABLE PEDESTRIAN.

ALLEGED MURDER AND ATTEMPTED…

MURDER AND SUICIDE IN WALES.

A MURDER TRIAL IN PARIS.

I' !SERIOUS FIRE IN PARIS.

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