60 Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society. 



cold comfort that the potentials of a horrible death instead of 

 seeming to exist only after a heavy rain, are always hovering near, 

 and that at any time the death-dealing mud may burst upon them 

 from some unexpected quarter. It is consequently doubtful if 

 they could be induced to limit their faith in the maleficence of 

 the rain. The human mind intuitively seeks reasons, and is 

 generally satisfied with the most convenient — specious or other- 

 wise. Thus the " changes " of the moon still account satisfac- 

 torily for "changes" of the weather to the majority, because, 

 although the relation seldom works out in practice, meteorologists 

 have not yet been able to devise a simple and more convenient 

 substitute. But whereas the numerous false doctrines of this 

 type are of no consequence one way or the other, the same 

 indifference is not to be encouraged towards what will be a stand- 

 ing menace to diamond producers until Moissan's laboratory 

 supplants the mine. It is imperative, therefore, to ascertain 

 whether any controllable agencies conspire to drive out the mud, 

 or whether it rushes forth of its own accord so soon as a sufficient 

 quantity has gathered together. 



At the outset of this branch of the inquiry there was some diffi- 

 culty, inasmuch as the mud-rush records were not of a scientific 

 closeness of description. In fact, it is not to be expected that they 

 should be. The primary intention of an overman's report to the 

 mine manager is whether a given quantity of work has been done, 

 and, if not, why not ; for more than that the manager can satisfy 

 himself by personal inspection. Thus many mud rushes, whose 

 whole history and description would have been of the greatest value, 

 are dismissed in a very few words : e.g., "March 20th, 2nd Shift. 

 Mud out into Main Drift. One set of timber out. Same level, 

 south side No. 10, mud out to Main Tunnel" ; "3/8/94 2nd Shift. 

 Mud rush on 840, James & Co., in which four boys are caught and 

 are undoubtedly dead, the mud being so fine, also a mud rush on 880 

 in same quarter immediately underneath closing 5 filling places " ; 

 and so on. Then again there was sometimes a doubt whether such 

 a time as, say, " Feb. 20th, 3rd Shift," always referred to the shift 

 beginning at 11 p.m. on the 20th, or to that ending at 7 a.m. on the 

 20th.* Nor was it always possible to determine from the wording 

 of the reports whether a mud rush was of large or small dimensions. 

 Still, for a preliminary inquiry such as this, it is not very likely that 

 more precise terminology would have been of much greater utility. 



* The mine is worked in " shifts" of eight honrs each ; the first shift begins 

 at 7 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m. ; the second begins at 3 p.m. and ends at 11 p.m. ; 

 the third begins at 11 p.m. and ends at 7 a.m. 



