294 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
stake, driven into tlie ground at the upper edge of the 
pit, with an iron or wooden pulley attached, enabling 
them to draw up the buckets of diamond-earth by hand. 
This acted very well as long as the walls of the mine 
were perpendicular ; but when they were at all on the 
incline, or when, as would sometimes happen, the earth 
had to be carried a hundred yards or more over the 
heads of other workers, one stake was driven in at the 
bottom of the pit and three at the top, and between two 
of these a cylinder, two or three feet in diameter, or a 
great wheel, was kept in motion, by natives turning 
handles at both ends; by this means the full buckets 
were lifted, and the empty lowered simultaneously ; a 
rope of stout iron-wire connected the third upright 
stake with the one at the bottom of the pit, and along 
this there ran two grooved iron rods, that supported a 
framework, provided with a hook to which the bucket 
could be attached. As the excavations grew deeper, 
and the diggers became the owners of more than one 
claim apiece, the expense of raising the larger quantities 
of earth, and the waste of time, began to be seriously 
felt, and led to the introduction of wooden whims— 
great capstans worked by horse-power. Many of these 
cumbrous machines are still in use; but the more 
wealthy diggers, as well as the companies that have 
recently been formed, now generally employ steam 
engines. 
This is specially the case at the Kimberley kopje. 
Although these are the smallest of the diamond-mines, 
they are the richest, and consequently attract the 
largest proportion of diggers. It soon became im¬ 
possible to find space for the separate hand-pulleys to 
stand side by side, and huge deal scaffolds were erected, 
three stories high, so that three distinct lifting-apparatus 
could be worked one above another, without requiring a 
basement area of much more than six square feet. At 
present, however, the edge of the embankment is almost 
entirely covered with horse-whims and steam-engines 
that have been brought from England. 
o o 
It is no longer allowable for the diamond-earth to be 
