and there is some talk
of the presentation of a substantial testimonial to the energetic and
scientific traveller to whom it is due."

Within a week or ten days of the receipt of these telegrams in London
there came letters from the Russian correspondents of the various
journals giving fuller details upon a subject of so much general
interest. The _Times_ directed attention to the matter in a leader.

"It appears," remarked the great paper, "that a most important addition
has been made to the mineral wealth of the Russian Empire. The silver
mines of Siberia and the petroleum wells of the Caucasus are to be
outrivalled by the new diamond fields of the Ural Mountains. For untold
thousands of years these precious fragments of crystallized carbon have
been lying unheeded among the gloomy gorges waiting for the hand of man
to pick them out. It has fallen to the lot of one of our countrymen to
point out to the Russian nation the great wealth which lay untouched and
unsuspected in the heart of their realm. The story is a romantic one.
It appears that a Mr. Langworthy, a wealthy English gentleman of good
extraction, had, in the course of his travels in Russia, continued his
journey as far as the great mountain barrier which separates Europe from
Asia. Being fond of sport, he was wandering in search of game down one
of the Ural valleys, when his attention was attracted by the thick
gravel, which was piled up along the track of a dried-up water-course.
The appearance and situation of this gravel reminded him forcibly of the
South African diamond fields, and so strong was the impression that he
at once laid down his gun and proceeded to rake the gravel over and to
examine it. His search was rewarded by the discovery of several stones,
which he conveyed home with him, and which proved, after being cleaned,
to be gems of the first water. Elated at this success, he returned to
the spot next day with a spade, and succeeded in obtaining many other
specimens, and in convincing himself that the deposit stretched up and
down for a long distance on both sides of the torrent. Having satisfied
himself upon this point, our compatriot made his way to Tobolsk, where
he exhibited his prizes to several of the richest merchants, and
proceeded to form a company for the working of the new fields. He was
so successful in this that the shares are already far above par, and our
correspondent writes that there has been a rush of capitalists,