THE SOUTH-AFRICAN DIAMOND-MINES. 465 



sold the claims at the ruling prices, which were then, in 1872, fifty to 

 one hundred pounds per claim. Naturally the purchasers found (as 

 they thought) that they had been sold, and they in their turn again 

 planted " the claims on some more of their brother-diggers." A few, 

 however, held their claims on the chance of something turning up, and 

 they had their reward ; for, before long, " some one had cut through 

 this hard blue rock and hauled it from the mine into the air. Here it 

 was left for some time exposed to the rays of the sun and the dews 

 and rains of heaven ; when one day it was found to have pulver- 

 ized into a kind of mixed soil, consisting of iron-stones, pieces of hard 

 carbon, garnets, flakes of mica, quartz-crystals, iron pyrites, peridot 

 basalt, and what was not expected, diamonds ! Yes, imbedded in this 

 compact mass were numbers of diamonds far exceeding in quantity 

 and quality anything taken from the upper stratum of yellow soil. 

 Diggers had only been scratching the outer skin of the great Kimber- 

 ley mine." The "yellow ground" is now known to be only the blue 

 ground, which has been changed in color and consistency by exposure 

 to the atmosphere ; and the character of the " blue " has not shown 

 any alteration, except that it has become harder and more crystallized, 

 at the depth of six kundi-ed feet, to which the lowest sinkings have 

 been extended. The rock itself is described, generally, as a hydrous 

 magnesian conglomerate, with silica as a base ; but it is added that 

 its precise nature is still doubtful, and " a catalogue of all it contains 

 would fill a page." In the shale on the south side of the mine a lump 

 of coal was discovered, and within the mine itself charred-wood fossils 

 have been found. Thin veins of calc-spar are of frequent occurrence. 

 Vaalite, mica, iron pyrites, and hornblende, are disseminated through 

 the 'blue,' besides fragments and masses of shale, sandstone, and 

 bowlders of dolerite." 



The working of the mines has been seriously impeded and made 

 vastly more expensive by the treacherous nature of the " reef," or for- 

 mation of yellowish and blue shale with which its upper part is sur- 

 rounded. Wherever this rock is exposed it becomes disintegrated, 

 and is then liable to slip down at any time, like a land-slide, upon the 

 miners working beneath it, covering up their claims and making it ex- 

 tremely difficult as well as dangerous to work in them ; for the removal 

 of such masses as came down soon grew to be a formidable task. In 

 fact, the mine has not yet fully recovered from the troubles which this 

 reef has imposed upon its workers. These most affected the claim- 

 holders near the margin of the mine. At the same time those near 

 the center were embarrassed by the accumulation of water in their 

 holdings. " It soon became a recognized principle that both reef and 

 water should be treated as common enemies, and accordingly a general 

 rate was levied upon the whole mine to deal with them." To work 

 more effectually with the reef -removal, the Mining Board erected 

 costly hauling machinery on two of the corners of the mine, and sank 



TOL. XXX. — 30 



