May 1, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



097 



the eonsolidation of these extraordinary prop- 

 erties. Chapter X. — ' The Essential Combi- 

 nation ' — describes this result — the great 

 achievement of Cecil Ehodes — in its history 

 and in its bearings, both upon the mines 

 themselves and upon the future of all South 

 Africa. 



The next chapter, on ' Systematic Mining,' 

 gives full accounts of the methods then adopt- 

 ed, and novr in use, for the operation of the 

 mines in a comprehensive and economical man- 

 ner. Here Mr. Williams is describing his 

 own particular work; as the whole vast con- 

 nected scheme of exploitation, under which 

 such splendid success has been attained in the 

 past fourteen years, and which is adapted to 

 the further prosecution of the work for an in- 

 definite time to come, is of his planning and 

 execution. The modesty, however, with which 

 he refers to himself and his unique achieve- 

 ments is remarkable, and bears the stamp of 

 genuine greatness. Without the skill and 

 ability which Mr. Williams has shown in the 

 designing and operating of the present system, 

 the great consolidation effected by Mr. Rhodes 

 and his group of financial supporters might 

 have failed of a successful result, or at least 

 never have attained the far-reaching impor- 

 tance that it has. 



This chapter is largely technical, and can 

 not be readily outlined in a manner intelligible 

 to the ordinary reader — dealing as it does of 

 necessity with conditions, terms and processes 

 belonging to mining engineering. In a gen- 

 eral way, however, it may be described as a 

 process of undermining instead of excavating. 

 The first method had been by digging down 

 from above, by a host of independent claim- 

 owners, individual or corporate. The mines 

 thus became immense pits, traversed by roads 

 that came to stand up as narrow ridges, and 

 walled by the vertical surrounding ' reef ' of 

 basalt and shale. As already stated, however, 

 first the intervening roadways between the 

 claims caved in and became useless, and then 

 the reef-wall began to fall and cover great 

 areas of diamond-bearing ' blue-ground ' with 

 thousands of tons of broken rock. Various 

 tentative devices were tried for continuing the 

 working under such conditions, but they were 



plainly temporary and destined to ultimate 

 failure. Only by consolidation of aU the 

 claims could a general and comprehensive 

 plan be adopted for operating the whole. This 

 was brought about by Mr. Ehodes, first for the 

 De Beers laine ; next, after much contest with 

 Mr. Barnato, by the union of this with the 

 Kimberley mine, in which the latter had a 

 controlling interest; then by both in coopera- 

 tion, by the taking in by the great corporation, 

 the ' De Beers Consolidated Mines, Limited,' 

 of the Bultfontein and Du-Toits-isan mines, 

 which together now form the wonderful group 

 of volcanic ' necks ' or ' craters ' (though the 

 latter term is hardly correct) around the city 

 of Kimberley. 



This took place in 1888; and by the begin- 

 ning of 1889 Mr. Williams, as the general 

 manager of the whole, began his new method 

 of working. Shafts were sunlc in the solid 

 rock outside of the mine areas, and horizontal 

 galleries run from these into the 'blue-ground' 

 of the mines, beneath all the fallen mass that 

 covered so much of the former workings. The 

 blue-ground was excavated along galleries 

 branching from these again, and thus a given 

 area on a given level was worked out, and the 

 overlying mass of fallen rock, its support 

 largely removed, was allowed to sink down 

 and fill up the empty galleries and chambers. 

 The same process was then repeated on an- 

 other level, thirty or forty feet below, and a 

 new set of galleries opened and emptied, and 

 whatever ' blue-ground ' also had been left as 

 supports, on the former level, was now taken 

 out from below. It will be seen that this 

 process admits of being carried on indefinitely 

 downward, so far as the mechanical difficulties 

 are concerned. The extraction is done, in 

 each level, from the rock-wall toward the in- 

 terior; and in each mine, several levels are 

 being worked at the same time, by methods 

 explained in the account. The extensive ma- 

 chinery for hoisting the material removed and 

 for pumping out the water that accumulates, 

 etc., is also here described and illustrated. 



Chapter XII., on ' Winning the Diamonds,' 

 is less technical than the preceding, and full 

 of curious interest. The ' blue-ground ' rock 

 of the necks or chimneys was at first broken 



