480 Mr. William Croohes [June 11, 



Mr. PatersoD, taken from a paper read to the Geologists' Association, 

 which gives a graphic picture of the early days of the Kimberley 

 mine : — 



" The New Rush diggings (as the Kimberley Mine was first 

 called) are all going forward in an oval space enclosed around by 

 the trap dyke, of which the larger diameter is about 1000 feet, while 

 the shorter is not more than 700 feet in length. Here all the claims 

 of 31 feet square each are marked out with roadways about 12 feet in 

 width, occurring every 60 feet. Upon these roadways, beside a short 

 pole fixed into the roadway, sits the owner of the claim with watchful 

 eye upon the KaflBr diggers below, who fill, and hoist by means of a 

 pulley fixed to the pole above, bucketful alter bucketful of the picked 

 marl stuff in which the diamonds occur." 



Soon came the difftculty how to continue working the host of 

 separate claims without infringements. A system of rope haulage 

 was then adopted. This mode of haulage continued in vogue during 

 the whole of 1873, and if the appearance of the mine was less 

 picturesque than when roadways existed, it was, by moonlight 

 particularly, a weird and beautiful sight. 



But the mine was now threatened in two other quarters. The 

 removal of the blue ground undermined the support from the walls 

 of the pipe, and frequent falls of reef occurred, not only burying 

 valuable claims but endangering the lives of workers below (Fig. 6). 

 Moreover, as the workings deepened, water made its appearance, 

 necessitating pumping. 



It soon became evident that open workings were doomed, and by 

 degrees the present system of underground working was devised. 



During this time of perplexity, individual miners who might have 

 managed one or two claims near the surface could not continue work 

 in the face of harassing difiiculties and heavy expenses. Thus the 

 claims gradually changed hands until the mine became the property 

 first of a comparatively small number of capitalists, then of a smaller 

 number of limited liability companies, until the whole of the mines 

 have practically become the property of the " De Beers Consolidated 

 Mines, Limited." 



The areas of the mines are : — 



Kimberley 33 acres. 



De Beers 22 „ 



Dutoitspan . 45 „ 



Bulfontein 36 „ 



The contents of the several pipes are not absolutely identical. 

 The diamonds from each pipe differ in character, showing that the 

 upflow was not simultaneous from one large reservoir below but was 

 the result of several independent eruptions. Even in the same mine 

 there are visible traces of more than one eruption. 



The blue ground varies in its yield of diamonds in different mines, 



