696 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 435. 



Ehodes, and the other as the manager, Mr. 

 Williams — is due a financial corporation laid 

 out and conducted on lines of such extent and 

 permanence that it surpasses almost any other 

 in existence. To the credit of both be it said 

 that they never used their positions for specu- 

 lative dealings in the stock, and that neither 

 of them ever lost faith in their great enter- 

 prise. 



The title, ' The Diamond Mines of South 

 Africa,' is slightly misleading, as the book 

 refers only to those mines ovpned by the De 

 Beers Consolidated Co., and omits some other 

 mines in the Transvaal and the Orange Free 

 State not under their management or owner- 

 ship. These, however, represent less than 

 three per cent, of the entire output of South 

 Africa. 



The volume opens with a chapter on the an- 

 cient Adamas, illustrations being given of all 

 the noted historical diamonds. The second 

 chapter treats of the traditional Ophir Land, 

 and the facts tending to prove that the famous 

 King Solomon's mines were in Rhodesia. To 

 support this view, illustrations are given of 

 the gold ornaments found in the district, and 

 the historical evidences of the great ruins 

 at Zimbabwe, Khami and Insiza. This theory 

 is also sustained by John Hays Hammond, 

 notably in a lecture delivered before the 

 American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, Washington, on January 3, 1903. 



It is doubtful if any one else living possesses 

 so many facts as Mr. Williams concerning the 

 original discovery of the African diamond 

 mines, the early pioneers of the district and 

 other historical data, which, if they had not 

 been preserved here, would have been soon for- 

 ever lost. These are presented in chapters III. 

 to VII., entitled, respectively, ' The Pioneer 

 Advance,' ' The Discovery,' ' The Camps on 

 the Vaal,' ' The Eush to Kimberley,' and ' The 

 Great White Camps.' These chapters give a 

 connected and vivid account of the history of 

 the vs'hole region, from the Cape to the hinter- 

 land — its early settlement, its slow and scanty 

 development through two centuries and its 

 sudden and marvelous period of change and 

 growth in the last thirty years. 



In the ' Pioneer Advance ' we have an in- 

 teresting sketch of the early conditions of the 

 Cape Colony; of the expeditions under en- 

 terprising Dutch governors and explorers, in 

 search of the golden land of traditional Ophir, 

 ever disappointed and turned back ; of the de- 

 cline of interest and of hoped-for prosperity; 

 of the British seizure and occupation. Then 

 follows a striking account of ' the Great Trek,' 

 when the Boer farmers, preferring a fresh 

 start in the wilderness to the acceptance of an 

 alien rule, went forth to found new common- 

 wealths on the upland veldt beyond the Vaal. 

 The features of the country, and the strife 

 with negro savages, are forcibly pictured; and 

 the record, if rude, is yet heroic, and appeals 

 very powerfully to the best traditions of our 

 own history. After a generation had passed, 

 in the calm, old-fashioned pastoral life of the 

 Dutch republics, came ' The Discovery ' — the 

 first diamond accidentally picked up in the 

 gravel of the Vaal, in 1867. In due time 

 followed an invasion of prospectors and dia- 

 mond-hunters, gathering along the valley — 

 ' The Camps on the Vaal ' — the period of the 

 ' river diggings.' Soon after came the finding 

 of other and richer beds on the uplands to the 

 east, and the 'Rush to Kimberley' set in, in the 

 early 70's. This marvelous gathering, from 

 every part of the world, is most vividly pic- 

 tured, and the ' Great White Camps ' that 

 sprang up as though by magic, to give place 

 to permanent cities and gigantic industries. 



Chapters VIII. to XV. are taken up with 

 the diamond mines themselves; chapter VIII,, 

 on ' The Opening of the Craters,' describes 

 the early stages of mining operations, in 

 which scores and hundreds of little private 

 claims were worked from the surface down, 

 until with increasing depth, the intervening 

 roadways and then the great surrounding 

 ' reef ' or wall-rock, began to fall and cave in, 

 so that an entire change of method was seen 

 to be ere long inevitable. The next chapter, 

 on ' The Moving Men,' introduces us to the 

 history and personality, the plans, purposes, 

 efforts and rivalries, of the two leading figures 

 in the subsequent development of the De Beers 

 and Kimberley mines — Cecil Rhodes and 

 Barney Barnato — whereby was brought about 



