LIFE AT THE DIAMOND-FIELDS. 457 



imagination can grasp the picture. And it is here that 

 men come, men of education, men of good family, to 

 sweat and toil, hour after hour, and day after day, fear 

 and hope racking their bosoms in pieces, to gain suffi- 

 cient of the world's wealth, that when they turn their 

 steps homewards, and reach the thrice blessed land of 

 their birth, they may be able to support an aged 

 mother, devoted sister, or possibly one dearer than even 

 the closest of relatives. 



The population live in tents, or huts of wood or 

 corrugated iron. Not unfrequently the same dwelling 

 may be seen composed of both materials. Ingenuity 

 and management have made some of these primitive 

 dwellings not uncomfortable. This is more particularly 

 to be noted when a wife is at the head of the establish- 

 ment, for ladies have found their way out here as well 

 as to less inaccessible parts of the earth. The want of 

 water prevents almost any attempt at gardening, and 

 how much would a few flowers do to relieve the eye- 

 exhausting monotony ! But I learnt on my visit that, 

 for ten months, not a shower had fallen upon this sun- 

 baked land, so that water had risen to the enormous 

 price of three shillings a bucket. 



The pans or diggings from which the diamonds are 

 procured are nothing more or less than enormous holes. 

 Kimberly mine, the larger of the two, I should imagine 

 between three or four hundred feet deep, the sides being 

 at about an angle of forty-five degrees, while the dis- 

 tance across the top cannot be less than three hundred 

 yards. Along the outer edge are innumerable wind- 

 lasses, some worked by hand, some by horse-power, 

 and others by steam, from each of which descend wire 

 ropes to the respective claims. On these ropes the 



