Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1878-08-09
A South Africa Diamond Nine.

From whatever direction one comes
from the surrounding plain, the most
prominent sight is the lofty range of
sand mounds, rising up from out the
center Of the town, and overlapping
everything. These are composed of
earth from the original thirteen surface
acres of the Kimberley mine, and
thrown up around the edge of the gradu-
ally deepening pit, just as the ant ON q
smaller scale piles up a circular ridge
around its hole. BY diamond "mine !"
in Africa, is meant pipe Of several acres
superficial area and unknown depth,
running straight down through stratified
layers of shale. Each pipe, and there
are only four, is filed in to the level Of
the general surface of the plain with
sand, tufa, and diamond bearing brec-
cha or soft rock. The Kimberley pipe or
mine has now been excavated to depth
of about two hundred and fifty feet.
Most of the streets of the town converge
to it. We walk to the edge of rock
which surrounds it, called the "reef, Fl"
and before and beneath us extends an
abyss-a huge oval-shaped cauldron-
open full to the skies. Over its edge
lies sheer descent of two hundred and
fifty feet; across it, from side to side, a
stretch of thousand feet, or a fifth of a
mile. Coming even as one does from
the life and stir of the town, the first
look into the mine is a fascinating and
bewildering one.
Little by little the facts unfold and
steal upon the attention. One talks to
his neighbor as to deaf man, for q
steady hum or roar fills the air, chiefly
made up of human voices and the whir
of buckets ascending and descending on
their wire ropes. Ten thousand men are
working below and around US, in the pit
and around its edge. ALI is in plain
sight, for there is no burrowing under
ground. Far below, little black pigmy
men-so they seem in the distance-are
moving about, but not singlv or at ran
dom, for closer observation shows that
they are working in groups, each group
upon certain well-deined square patch
of solid earth, at which it is picking and
delving, or walking to and fro over it,
carrying little buckets of loosened soil
In their midst sits or stands white
overseer or the master himself.
Spreading over the whole excavation
or pit, cauldron, pot or basin, which
ever conveys the clearest idea, like 6
spiders web on dewy morning, run
innumerable white threads, so they seen
as they glisten in the sun. Follow one
such thread to our feet, and it will bt
found to be a shining wire rope, worr
white with constant use. And here OF
the edge or brim, called, as we know
the "reef," we find scene of life anC
labor even more animated than below
ALI around, but chiefly on two oppo
site sides, is erected a strong framework
of timber called the " staging" estimat
ed to have cost $3.50, 900. 1t is built il
three tiers, like a three-story house, anC
each tier is fioored to afford standin,
room for laborers. Firmly set all alonl
each tier of this staging are hundreds o
wooden wheels, about four feet in diane
ter, with a crank on each side, to b
turned by four Kafirs. The iron rope
run from every part of the circumfer
ence, but differ greatly in length--som
extending vertically down the reef, som
far out into the center of the mine, an,
others to varying intermediate distances
but each to its own claim. Such rop
is stretched from the bearings of eacl
wheel on the staging to it's correspond
ing claim below, where it is made fas
to post sunk firmly in the ground
Thus wheel, a wire rope and a " claim,
be it only a sixteenth, are inseparable
and equal in number. On these wiz
ropes the "blue stuff" is hauled il
buckets by aid of the windlass, up on
of the mine. Scribner.