Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-06-12
NHERE DIAMONDS ARE FOUND.
The Process OF Mining Is Conducted In South
Africa-The Story Of an Unexpected
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Among the .tcurlosities Of com
merce' none. perhaps, is more Curl
Gus than that the major portion of the
produce exported from South Africa
is simply used for the adornment of
ladies. Out of total value exported
OF f7, 100000, ostrich feathers and dia-
monds account for f5,000,O0O. Tween
ty years ago all known diamonds had
come to Europe or the United States
from immemorial eastern stocks or
from the scanty produce Of mines in
Brazil and elsewhere, which were cal
culated to yield not more than ESQ.,
600 worth in the year. To-day, stu
ated in the midst Of wide stretching
plain affording at all points sea-line
horizon of fat '.veldt,'' we find this
town OF Kimberley with a large Eu-
ropean population of wealthy and
well-to-d people, and large native
population earning every year more
than IL, 100000 sterling in wages
And from this mining oasis in the az
ricultural desert has been sent IN the
last fifteen years something like f40,-
100000 worth of diamonds in the
rough, which, with the cost of cutting,
setting, and selling, must have taken
thing approaching fl00, 100000.
AS all the world knows, the south
African diamond mines have their own
story of unexpected discovery at the
least as startling as that of any gold
field or other rich mineral deposit in
the world. In 1867 the first diamond
was found, the favorite toy of IL little
Boer girl, which she had picked out
from among the roots of Al old tree.
Its commences was not long in doubt,
and in few months the bed of the
Vaal river was known as a profitable
diamond region. Prospecting became
the rage, and hero and there on the
open, Hat, grassy veldt diamonds were
found in spots with common peculiar
tiles Of soil and so forth. In three
years. time the secret Of the diamond
deposits had been so far fathomed as
to prove that they were strange clrcu-
lar deposits, or patches OF peculiar
earth Isolated from one another and
few in number. These were at once
''rushed," and a regulation dig cling
community took possession of the new
district. Private individuals, previ-
| GUS proprietors. and governments
fought for the claim to these new min
eral riches, but despite these squab-
bles the practical work was carried on
of marking out these circular patches
in diggers' claims over the flat sur
face. At first the rule was each dig
ger for himself; and with pick and
shovel diamonds were brought to grass
in such profusion that the whole min
ing world was startled by discovery
exceeding in magnitude, real and
prospective, any previous find. But,
as men dug deeper in their claims, 50
they found it necessary to arrange and
amalgamate with their neighbors;
moreover, the deeper they went the
more necessity for machinery to hoist
the soil to the surface. And then, as
they passed on through the top "yel-
low" they came upon a "blue'' soil
which was yet more rich in diamonds.
Suffice it to say, that in ten years
time each one of these greater circu-
lar areas had been so far emptied of
soil as to represent great quarries one
y
and three hundred or four hundred
feet deep. Early in the digging the
geologist stepped IN to point out that
these circular basins were evidently
species of volcanic crater, followed
out in the surface rock by subterranean
action and filled up to the surface
with blue diamondiferous mud. The
walls of these basins are locally known
as 1.-THE REEFS" and in their greed to
secure all they could the older miners
cut out all the ''blue" right up to the
reef. When, however, the cuttings
got down deep the walls or reefs be-
gan to fall in, owing to the dlsintegrat-
ing action of boiling sun and heavy
rain, covering up in their fall large
areas of valuable blue. At first tho
digging was simple and cheap-the
mere turning up and searching of loose
soil second stage when the soil had
to be cut out and hauled up to the
surface with the aid of machinery; a
third stage brought the miners to q
stitfened blue, which had not only to
be brought to the surface, but then
spread about and broken up by hand
labor and exposure to the weather,
| and at the present moment all around
the mines are to be seen literall miles
If the "blue," laid out In shallow lay
srs over the open veldt. With these
more extended operations came more
elaborate machinery for hosting, for
spreading on the ''floors," and for
sorting. Now round eacn great basin
Or quarry IS q circle of steam engines
working wire-rope lifts up and down
to the bottom of the quarry; and round
the brink run locomotives and trains
Of trucks whlsking the "biue'' so
ught up away to be spread out like
80 much manure over the veldt, and to
be taken thence, when duly dis inte-
grated by the weather, broken up by
hand, and narrowed and rolled, to the
washing places, where it Is all sent by
hydraulic action through a series of
rotatory sieves and pulsators on the
principle of, in successive mechanical
operations, washing away all dirt
| that is lighter than diamonds. The
| washers are so arranged that the out
fall of each portion is graduated in
size, and falls on series of sorting
! tables. At these stand five or six of
| the principal newcomers and dlrec-
tors of companies among them-spread
! ing out the cleaned washed stuff grad
| uated from the size of pebbles to that
of sand; and the visitor may stand by
| in wonder to see the searcher at
! the one end pick out his eight or ten
'sbig" stones per hour, or assist the
| searcher at tho other busily sorting
out of the sand innumerable white
specks of diamonds. The days work,
| tunbled into small snuff boxes, will
frequently reach . local value OF