Inquiry into the Origin of Mud Bushes in De Beefs Mine. 67 



NOTE. 



The above paper was written in March, 1897. The De Beers 

 Mine was delightfully free from mud from the end of 1896 to June, 

 1897, in spite of torrential rains, and hopes were entertained that 

 mud rushes had come to an end. In June, however, they began 

 afresh, on a larger scale than ever, and have occurred at pretty 

 frequent intervals throughout the winter drought. The mud rush 

 of July 16th last (in which two lives were lost — one a white man, 

 the other a native — while several were saved after some days' im- 

 prisonment in a blind offset) is perhaps the largest on record ; four 

 levels were more or less blocked, the rush of mud proper being 

 succeeded by that of a body of water estimated at from two to three 

 million gallons. 



Since the paper was written I have been able to compare the mud 

 rushes of 1894 in the Kimberley Mine with the atmospheric con- 

 ditions of the same year. The barometric factor is there, but the 

 temperature factor seems to be quite absent. This is doubtless due 

 to the lesser velocity of the air-current in the Kimberley, compared 

 with that in the De Beers Mine. J. E. S. 



