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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Fig. 2. Home of a Wealthy Mine Owner. 



lack of water, except that of the river miles away and that caught 

 •during the few rainfalls. 



Most of the mining is clone by individuals called ' garimpeiros,' 

 •who either work for themselves or on shares with the owner of the 

 ■claim. In Bahia, the number of owners hiring laborers to work their 

 claims is not more than half a dozen. 



The miners are almost entirely blacks or of mixed race. The 

 greater part of them live in near-by towns, but many have quarters 

 built beneath an overhanging ledge, from which they have removed the 

 diamond-bearing material. 



Their food consists chiefly of native beans with jerked beef and an 

 abundance of mandioca meal, which takes the place of bread, with now 

 and then fresh meat, a much prized boiled dinner or a piece of salt 

 fish. Drinking water is in abundance everywhere. Native rum can be 

 had very cheap, yet the number addicted to intemperance is very small, 

 wonderfully so for a mining region. 



Many times provisions are advanced by the grocer until a find is 

 made, when all is paid up, and if there is a balance such high-priced 

 articles as beer, American canned oysters, lobsters, etc., are indulged 

 in as long as the money lasts. 



The health of the region leaves much to be desired. Because of the 

 great quantities of semi-stagnant water on every hand, every facility is 

 given to create anopheles mosquitoes, with the result that malaria in 

 it? worst types is always in abundance. 



By far the greater part of the successful mining is still done by 

 antiquated methods which have the advantage that they require little 

 capital for an outfit. A miner's tools consist of a short-handled hoe 



