According to this hypothesis, the so-called volcanic pipes are simply holes bored in the solid earth by the impact of monstrous meteors--the larger masses boring the holes, while the smaller masses, disintegrating in their fall, distributed diamonds broadcast. Bizarre as such a theory appears, I am bound to say there are many circumstances which show that the notion of the heavens raining diamonds is not impossible.
The most striking confirmation of the meteoric theory comes from Arizona. Here, on a broad open plain, over an area about five miles in diameter, have been scattered one or two thousand masses of metallic iron, the fragments varying in weight from half a ton to a fraction of an ounce. There is no doubt these masses formed part of a meteoric shower, although no record exists as to when the fall took place. Curiously enough, near the centre, where most of the meteorites have been found, is a crater with raised edges three-quarters of a mile in diameter and about 600 feet deep, bearing exactly the appearance which would be produced had a mighty mass of iron struck the ground and buried itself deep under the surface. Altogether, ten tons of this iron have been collected, and specimens of the Canyon Diablo meteorite are in most collectors’ cabinets.
An ardent mineralogist--the late Dr. Foote--cutting a section of this meteorite, found the tools were injured by something vastly harder than metallic iron. He examined the specimen chemically, and soon after announced to the scientific world that the Canyon Diablo meteorite contained black and transparent diamonds. This startling discovery was afterwards verified by Professors Moissan and Friedel, and Moissan, working on 183 kilogrammes of the Canyon Diablo meteorite, has recently found smooth black diamonds and transparent diamonds in the form of octahedra with rounded edges, together with green, hexagonal crystals of carbon silicide. The presence of carbon silicide in the meteorite shows that it must at some time have experienced the temperature of the electric furnace. Since this revelation the search for diamonds in meteorites has occupied the attention of chemists all over the world.
Fig. 23 A, C, and D, are reproductions of photographs of true diamonds I myself have extracted from the Canyon Diablo meteorite.