A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 



it resembled almost exactly the gravel found in the 

 Vaal River diggings, and was here and there strongly 

 ferruginous, mingled with red sand, and occasionally 

 lime. I noticed quickly that agates, jaspers, and 

 chalcedony were distributed pretty thickly, and that 

 occasionally the curious banddoom stone, so often 

 found in the Vaal River with diamonds, and, indeed, 

 often considered by diggers as a sure indicator of 

 'stones,' was to be met with. In many places the 

 pebbles were washed perfectly clean, and lay thickly 

 piled in hollow water-ways ; here we speedily 

 found a rich harvest of the precious gems. In a 

 feverish search of an hour-and-a-half, Klaas and I 

 picked up twenty-three fine stones, ranging in size 

 from a small pigeon's egg to a third of the size of 

 my little finger nail. They were all fine diamonds, 

 some few, it is true, yellow or straw-coloured, others 

 of purest water, as I afterwards learned, and we had 

 no difficulty in finding them, although we wandered 

 over not a twentieth part of the valley. I could see 

 at once from this off-hand search that enormous 

 wealth lay spread here upon the surface of the earth ; 

 beneath probably was contained fabulous wealth. 

 I was puzzled at the time — and I have never had 

 inclination or opportunity to solve the mystery 

 since — to account for the presence of diamonds in 

 such profusion. Whether they were swept into the 

 valley by early floodings of the Orange River 

 through some aperture that existed formerly, but 

 had been closed by volcanic action, or whether, as 

 I am inclined to think, the whole amphitheatre is a 

 vast upheaval from subterraneous fires of a bygone 

 period, is to this hour an unfathomed secret. I 

 rather incline to the latter theory, and believe that 



