130 Reviews — Discovery of Diamonds in South Africa. 



II. — The Discovery oe Diamonds in South Africa. By E. J. Dunn, 

 formerly Director of the Geological Survey of Victoria. 

 Industrial Australian and Mining Standard, vol. lx, p. 91, 1918. 



rPHIS article, which was reprinted in the Mining Magazine, 

 1 November, 1918, is a very interesting and readable account of 

 the beginnings of the South African diamond industry, and especially 

 so since the author was present in the very early days of the 

 discoveries, and watched the gradual growth of the mining at first 

 hand, while he also knew personally all the men who played the 

 chief parts in the early development. 



When he first arrived on the fields in 1871 the presence of 

 diamonds had been known for four or five years, and a considerable 

 amount of work had been done on the river diggings ; but the 

 exodus to the dry diggings was only just taking place; the site of 

 the De Beers Mine was a low knoll, and no one had so much as 

 scratched the surface at this place, where the shaft is now 3,520 feet 

 deep. 



The original discovery of the diamonds was quite accidental ; the 

 first was picked up by a Bushman herd-boy who gave the "blink 

 klip " or bright stone to his master's children to play with, and it 

 was only after some considerable time that its value was realized. 

 After this finds became gradually more frequent till at last the rush 

 took place and diamonds became a serious factor in the life of the 

 country. 



Before the discovery the trade and industries of South Africa were 

 at a very low ebb and the country had become almost bankrupt, but 

 the herd-boy's discovery on the Orange Biver was the beginning of 

 a period of prosperity which is still continuing, and to which 

 diamonds have contributed to a very considerable extent. 



III. — The Geomorphology oe the Coastal District of South- 

 western Wellington. By C. A. Cotton. Trans. New Zealand 

 Inst., vol. 1, pp. 212-22. 



TITHE fertile coastal district of South-Western Wellington shows 

 JL certain peculiar physiographic features of comparatively modern 

 growth which appear to be explicable as the result of alternate 

 retreat of the shore-line under wave-attack (retrogradation) and 

 advance of the shore -line due to accumulation of land-detritus 

 (progradation). The author gives an interesting theoretical dis- 

 cussion, with diagrams, of the growth of a coastal lowland under 

 conditions of fluctuating waste-supply, and applies his conclusions to 

 the features of the area under review. It appears that the dominant 

 factor in this instance is a variation in the supply of sand coming 

 from rivers further to the north-east, rather than a fluctuation in the 

 gravel brought down by the local streams. Other possible explanations 

 are also considered. 



