The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1891-10-10
FROM SOUTH AFRICA.
An Old White Pine Miner In the DIa-
mond and Gold Fields Of TransvanI

by Charley Wisel to George Travis of
Ward. The letter is dated johannes
burg, South African Republic, July
20, 1897"
arrived at johannesburg May 22d.
l had a nice time travelling and saw
great many inseresting sights, both at
sea as well as land. | stopped two
months in London on my way here.
| took good look all round Eng
land, stopped at Queenstown and
saw the irish on their native heath.
/ also stopped Mt Lisbon in Portugal,
at the island of Madeira, the Canary
| Islands and the Island of ST Helena:
| thence To Cape Town on The South
African coast, where | arrived May
| 18th.
At Cape Town | took the railroad
for Kimberly, where is located the
great diamond fields of Africa. Talk
of mines! These are the mines that
the world at large know little of, their
wonderful extent and the way they
are worked.
After spending several days in
Kimberly, visiting the mines, took
the stage for johannesburg, which is "A
thousand miles from Cape Town in
land Here is high rolling prairie
country 1000 feet above sea level,
and lying 26 degrees south of the
equator. with no timber to speak of,
and but little water in the way of
l. .saa .auIaF Ia.
population of $4,000 people all
colors and races-and is but five years
old.
The only mines here are gold in a
deposit of cement. Yet it is not
placer gold. but fine quartz gold. The
reef, as the ledge is called in this
country, lays something like a coal
mine, dips south at an angle of 30 to
As degrees, and is from three to six
feet in width and forty miles in
length. 1t is being worked the whole
length of the reef. The rock goes
from $40 to $50 per ton, and about
one-half is free milling, the other half
sulphides, which is worked by chic
rination process. The reef is COM
posed of quartz all broken up and
washed gravel all cemented together
into conglomerate mass, and the
gold is not in the quartz but in the
cement. There are over a thousand
stamps already working, and more
going up.
The labor of The country is mostly
done by The Kaffer Tribe of negoes
Miners wages is about 81 per day,
and the negroes get from $40 to $l5
per month.
like South Africa very much. The
climate is healthy; not too cold, as il
is winter here now, and they say the
| summers are not too warm.
There is great excitement at pres
ent at place called Prince Albert,
down in Cape Colony, over new dis
c"very of placer diggings. From all
can learn there is a good country
| 800 miles north of here, called the
Mashoneland. where gold is said to
be plenty, but IL is hard country to
get TO yet, and very sickly; still hun
dreds Of people have gone there.
1t costs about 5000 to get TO the
Transvaal from Salt Lake, and |
would not advise any one to come here
To look for work. unless he had a job
engaged before he left horne. Later on
on | can tell more about the new gold
fields.
| have had copied and will send you
map of the Debeers Diamond mine
at Kimberly. BY taking rule yon
measure by the scale. and YOU will
get an idea of the greatest and richest
mine on earth. The old volcanic
crater las call it nothing else) goes
vertically down into the earth, is
nearly round and embraces twelve
and half acres Of ground. The reef,
as you will see marked on the map,
is loose debris, and the top ground
which has settled down as the Blue
Diamond ground, has been taken out.
They are at present working through
the Rock shaft. The levels are 30
feet apart, and as they run across to
the farther side from the shaft they
work back and let the top settle
down to the next floor below; and as
the Blue Ground is blasting rock they
do not use any timbers. So twelve
acres, 80 feet high, comes out at once.
Then they go down to the next level
and work it out the same. Diamond
rock looks just like mica granite, only
iii very blue. The diamonds are found
! A cfAr In