gravel, from which the gems are either picked out 

 by hand, or removed by a machine called the " greaser." 

 This machine consists of a shaking-table containing 

 a series of steps, each step covered with a layer of 

 grease. As the gravel containing the diamonds is 

 washed over these, the gems adhere to the grease, 

 while the pieces of gravel pass on. To insure against 

 possible oversight the gravel is often picked over once 

 or twice by hand before going to the greaser. The 

 diamonds are then cleaned by a mixture of sulphuric 

 and nitric acid, sorted, and are ready for the market. 



While the great mines, such as have just been de- 

 scribed, produce ninety-nine per cent, of the yearly 

 diamond output, those that make up the remaining 

 one per cent, are still collected by the primitive method 

 of washing by hand. The rivers coming from the re- 

 gions of diamond-bearing earths bring down the detritus 

 from the rocks; and among the gravel in their beds 

 fine diamonds are found periodically by the solitary 

 washers who are always at work somewhere along 

 the streams. These streams are outside the lands, and 

 beyond the control, of the Kimberley and De Beers 

 mine owners, and the diamonds found in them, curi- 

 ously enough, are superior to those taken from the mines. 



The discovery of diamonds in South Africa was made 

 seventeen years after the finding of gold in California; 

 and the story of this discovery, with the resulting ex- 

 tensive change of the political map of the world, makes 

 a thrilling chapter in world history. It begins with 

 the children of a certain Dutch farmer named Jacobs, 

 who lived near Hopetown between Cape Town and 



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