60 Repoht S.A.A. Advaxckmknt of Scikxck. 



liim £10,000 and secure it at once." Tliis liad the desired effect, an«i 

 tlie Ijargain was concluded. Dr. Atlierstone untler^tood that lie was 

 to come in with tlie s\nidicate ; but through his travelling about tiie 

 country he was left out, and Heitz, Stockdale, Ebden and Clnistian 

 dividefl tlie responsibility between them. There were si.xteen shares, 

 (jf which Stockdale obtained two for his trouble. The Hon. J. X. 

 Merrinian afterwards secured a share, and negotiated the sale of the 

 farm to tlie Cape Government for £100,000. 



Dunn was with Dr. Atlierstone on the diggings, and i)ublished 

 an account of them in a rare pamphlet dated Capetown, 1871. Dunn 

 established the volcanic nature of the pipes, which opinion Cohen 

 subse<]uently confirmed. 



It is interesting t(j notice that Dr. John Shaw of Colesberg had 

 published an account of the diamoiul fields in the South African 

 Matjaziiie, December, 1869, in which he said the best place to look 

 for diamonds was gra\el ccmtaining garnets and olivine. Dr. Shaw 

 was at Bultfcmtein in December, 1870, where Mr. Leoni was superin- 

 tending the work for Messrs. Lilienfeld and Hond. Mr. Leoni showed 

 Dr. Shaw twenty seven diamonds. At the fields Dr. Atlierstone met 

 his old (ilrahamstown friends the Barbei-s, who had been there since 

 1870. 



In coming to the services which the iJaiiiers rendered to the 

 discovery of minerals in South Africa 1 must refer to the late Mrs. 

 F. W. Barber, whose love of natural history led her sons to take an 

 interest in it from an early age. She contributed man\' papers to 

 scientific magazines, and supplied Charles Darwin and Sir Joseph 

 Hooker with inaterials from South Africa in illusti-ation of their 

 work. It was her l)rush which painte<l the scenes of the beginnings 

 of Kimberley which hang in the Albany Museum : especially interest- 

 ing is the sketch of Colesbei-g Kopje, showing the famous tree under 

 which Mrs. Ortlepp a year later found thi' first diamond of the great 

 Kimberley mine. The pictifre is all the more valuable as it shows 

 what diaper calls the "champignon ' of erui»tioii — the mushroom- 

 shaped expansion on the surface — in wliidi afterwards fresh water 

 mussels, blocks of wood, and e\en an assegai head were found down 

 to 150 feet. No other diamond mint^ has exhibited these peculiar 

 zeolite-cemented caps to such a degree, and we must always deplore 

 that at the time no notice was taken of this structure, which might 

 lia\e led us to a better un<lei'standing oi the nature of these extra- 

 ordinary pipes. 



Wlien Dr. Atlierstone estal)lished the identity of the first diamond 

 a party of Crahamstown people, Alexander and Kenold Mcintosh, 

 Charles Cumming of Hilton Farm, Graham H. I^arljer, H. M. and 

 F. H. Barber, who were then living at Highlands, Robert Dick of 

 Kingwilliamstown, an 1 Dr. Atlierstone, who subscribed to tlie funds, 

 but <mly later went up to the fields, clubbed together and were the 

 first to proceed to the Vaal Biver diggings. They (Usco\'ered the first 

 diamond-bearing kopje at Barklv, and later the celebrated Good Hope 

 K(jpje. Next year the Barbers pegg»»»l out claims on the original 



