296 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
Now, however, washing-machines, some of them very 
elaborate, worked by steam-power, horse-power, or hand- 
labour, according to the means of the claim-owners, are 
almost universally employed. The earth is gradually 
cleared of clay, until only the stony particles remain ; 
and these are rinsed repeatedly in water until they are 
thoroughly clean ; then they are placed, generally every 
evening, in sieves for the moisture to drain off, and after 
a slight shaking, they are turned on to a table before 
the claim-owner or overseer. Whatever diamonds there 
may be, are generally detected at first sight; being 
heavier than other stones, they gravitate to the bottom 
of the fine-wire sieve, and consequently come upper¬ 
most when the contents are turned out for the final 
inspection. 
In proportion as the machinery has become more 
elaborate, and the modes of working more perfect, so 
have expenses increased, and diamond-digging now 
requires a considerable capital. This of course has 
tended to clear the work of a large crowd of mere 
adventurers, and made it a much calmer and more 
business-like pursuit than it was originally. The au¬ 
thorized rules and regulations for the protection of the 
diggers and of the merchants have likewise materially 
improved the condition of both. 
As viewed from the edge of the surrounding clay 
walls, the appearance of one of the great diamond-fields 
is so peculiar as almost to defy any verbal description. 
It can only be compared to a huge crater, which, pre¬ 
viously to the excavations, was filled to the very brink 
on which we stand with volcanic eruptions, composed of 
crumbling diamond-bearing earth, consisting mainly of 
decomposed tufa. That crater now stands full of the 
rectangular “ claims,” dug out to every variety of depth. 
Before us are masses of earth, piled up like pillars, 
clustered like towers, or spread out in plateaus ; some¬ 
times they seem standing erect as walls, sometimes they 
descend in steps ; here they seem to range themselves 
in terraces, and there they gape asunder as pits; alto¬ 
gether they combine to form a picture of such wild 
