The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-09-22
MOUNTAIN OF DIAMONDS.
One Australian Miner Discovers a
Genuine Bonanza.

Strange Tale OF a Miners Lucky Find,
Which, if True, Makes Him O~sner of
the Richest Mine in the History Of
the World-The Name of His Mine
Suggests, However, an Alloy of
Doubt-He Calls It the Monte Cristo.
The Stones TAKEN from 1t Declared
to Be the Best.
Australia Letter, in Pail Mall Gazette
This queer country Of ours is a prodi-
giOus lucky bag. out of which we are
always fishing up some surprise. There
Is scarcely a nOmadic who has not heard
of rcd and blue and green stones which
he cannot make up his mind to sell for
the tride offered by the jewellers. He
means to 60 home some day, and then
will get price for them. Meantime he
carries them about in little gold dust
bag, sometimes getting wheedled out of
one or two by oarmaid or going on the
tangle'' and losing the lot. Occasionally
one sees in a breastpin or a ring a fine
sapphire, vouched for as native, but the
emeralds, rubies, spinels, and almandines
found are mostly of small size.
All the world knows the magnificent
opal from our White cliffs, and all the
world will soon have an opportunity to
admire the superb Turquoise found at
Herdl, in Victoria. We have pearl fish
cries, we have the biggest silver mine in
the world and gold reefs so rich that a
drive is sometimes desert bed as a level.
er's SHOP" but surely we have nit upon
the gnomes' treasure-house when we talk
coolIy of mine with a ron OF diamonds
in sight" There have been such senti-
mental rumors OF late concerning the
diamond fields of Bingara, on the Horton,
IN New South Wales, that we had grown
callously incredulous and are The more
astonjshed to find from the report of d
special commissioner just returned to
Sydney that these rumors were less than
the truth.
The diamondiferous tract is some thou
sands of acres in extent, and the mine,
the Monte Cristo, already opened up, be-
longs TO one man. He has been working
it by himself, determined TO prove it be-
fore taking the public into his confidence,
and that is why we have heard so little
of what is going on there. Before de-
SCribing the field some account of his
career is due TO this Australian count of
Monte Cristo Mr.. captain by mining
courtesy Rogers is Cornishman, active
and resolute, but now over 90 years of
age. After opening up tin mines in
Tava, Penang, and elsewhere he came 10
Victoria in the first flush of its gold fever
and gained his colonial experience in
several rushes.
His practical shrewdness was early
demonstrated. He argued that instead
of following the aluvial gold should be
traced to its matrix. Acting on this con
viction, in 1858 he opened in Waffle Gully,
Forest creek, the first quartz reef in Vic
tOria, being Jeered as a mailman for eX-
pecting to ind gold in a lode. His exam
pie, however, was quickly followed, and
then came the difficulty of extracting the
gold from the cruelty hard quartz. The
captain claims to have erected the first
quartz-crushing machinery in Australia.
By the by home people cannot imagine
what a dazzlingly beautiful thing in the
sun is pure white quartz crushed.
The streets of Ballarat are metaled
with it and make one think of that little
surprise the French king prepared for
his mistress, when he had the park ave-
nues spread with salt. Capt. Rogers
acted as manager to various mining COM
panies, till in 1876 he was appointed ex-
pert TO a Sydney syndicate. He was sent
to report on Blngara as gold field. II
struck him the country was likely for
gems, and he resolved to return at his
leisure and inspect il.
1t was not for eight years that this
leisure moment came. but he had not
forgotten. He came all the way from
Ballarat in the ad dining colony, and,
after two months pros pecting, found a
lead which averaged three carats to the
load. Although at this time there was
uncertainty as to the market value of
Australian diamond $50 caIled) some spec
ulatOrS at once offered E3, 500 for his
claim. 1t was probable this want of den
| mite knowledge about the stone found
here that induced Rogers to accept the
| oder-a proceeding he soon regretted, as
the purchasers made a ring and took up
! every acre of dimondiferous country in the
district.
! 6Here again the Cornishman's innate
| ShrewdneSS stood him in good stead. He
| alone knew the trend of the country and
| the dead work needed to develop it. He
| argued that some of these mining leases
would inevitably be forfeited owing TO
! noncompliance with la Dor conditions. So
he waited. His foresight had not de-
! ceived him. AS the leases fell through
| he lodged his application and secured
! them, always keeping his eye steadily on
He waited i've years before this last lease
| was obtained.
Then he went to work all alone, some
| times not seeing another human being for
months. He sunk a shaft, timbered it,
| filed bags with the dirt below, climbed
| TO Jle surface ana ldQleQ LlGm up. he
! drove and cross-cut on two levels and
| sunk again through about fifty feet OF
very hard oXidized cement. How man
OF his age could have done this work I'M
! aided is a marvel, but of this drive he
washed fifteen loads for yield of 2, lS9
diamonds and proved the drift to be the
commencement of a deep lead.
After this he sunk an air shaft, which
was destroyed by flood, and before he
could get another one completed he sue.
cumbed to bad air and was laid up for six
months. As soon as he was able to work
again he followed up this drive with a
tunnel 200 feet to test the extent of the
drift, sunk third shaft, and from this
one opened up a shallow level so rich that
he christened it the Bonanza.
So far, although sending parcels OF
gems to London, Capt. Rogers had kept
his own counsel, but now, having proved
his property, he invited experts to visit
it, and very astonished they were. They
found that this dauntless octogenarian
had with his own hand accomplished the
work of opening up a great nine, display
| ing such cOnsummate judgment that
the upper level offered room for w
men to start blocking; that the drift haC
been raised 70 within 100 feet o
its matriX (which crops out on an ada
cent hill), ana sufficient of the forty fee
laid bare to yield ton of diamonds. IN,
whole of this drift is diamond bearing