Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1894-01-06
READS LIKE A FAIRY TALE
A Ton Of Diamonds 10 Sight in an
Australian Mine.
Greatest Diamond Mine the World Ever
Saw Discovered by - Cornishman--
$500 Found I'm One Load
of Dirt.

$500 Found In One Load
of Dirt.
This queer country Of ours Is prodi-
gious lucky bag, out of which we are
always fishing mp some surprise, writes
correspondent OF the Pail Mall Ga
zette from Australia. There is scarcely
a nomadic who has not hoard Of red
and blue and green stones which he
cannot make up his mind TO sell for the
trifle offered by the jewelers.. He means
to go home some day, and then he will
get price for them. Meantime he
carries them about in little goid-dust
bag. sometimes getting wheedled out
OF one or two by barmaid or going
ION the tangle" and losing the lot Oc-
casioually one sees In breastpin or a
ring IA 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 al
Herdi, in Victoria; we have pearl fish
cries; we have the biggest silver mine
in the world. and gold reefs SO rich
that drive IL sometimes described AZ
"a jewelers. shop; ;but surely we have
hit upon the gnomes' treasure house
when we taln cooliy of a mine with "a
ton OF diamonds IN sight" There have
been such sentimental rumors OF late
concerning the diamond fields OF Bin
CARA. or the Horton, in New South
Wales. that wo had grown ca!.ous,y in
credulous, and are the more astonished
10 find from the report OF a special com
missioner just returned to sydney that
these rumors were less than the truth.
The diamondiferous tract is some
thousands OF acres in extent, and the
mine, the Monte Cristo, already opened
up, belongs TO one man. lie has been
working 1t by himself, determined TO
prove il before taking the public into
his confidence, and that is why we
have heard so little of what was going
on there. Before describing the field
some account Of his career Is due To
this Australian count OF Monte Cristo
Mr.. captain by mining courtesy
Rogers is a Cornishman, active and res
olute, but now over So years Of age
After opening NJ tin mines in Tava,
Penang and elsewhere he came TO Vic
and gained his colonial experience in
sev eral rushes.
His practical shrewdness was early
demonstrated. lie argued that instead
of following the alluvial, gold should
be traced to its matrix. Acting on this
in 1853 he opened in Watts
Gully, Forest creek, the first quartz
reef in Victoria, being jeered as IA mad
man for expecting 10 find gold Ia
lode. His example was, however,
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 battery in Australia. BY the
by, home people cannot imagine what
d dazzlingiy beautiful thing in the
sun is pure white quartz crushed The
streets of Ballarat are metaled with
II and make one think of thas
little surprise the French king pre-
pared for his mistress when he had the
park avenues spread with salt Captain
Rogers acted as manager TO various
mining companies, till In 1873 he was ap-
pointed expert To a Syc syndicate
lie WAS sent TO report on Dingara as a
gold field. 1t struck him the country
was likely for gems, and he resolved to
return at his leisure and prospect It.
IL was not for eight years that this
moment came ha. he -. -,
forgotten. lie came all the way ~
Ballarat, in the adjoining colony, ana.
after two months prospecting, found
lead which averaged three carats TO the
load. Although at this time there was
as TO the market value Of
diamonds 'tso-cailedt. some
speculators at once offered f3, 500 for his
claim. 1t was probably thus want of
definite knowledge about the stone
found here that induced Rogers TO ac-
cept the offer-a proceeding he soon
as the purchasers made II /
ring. and took up every acre OF
country in the district |
Here again the Cornishman's innate
shrewdness stood him In good stead. |
He alone knew the trend Of the coun-
try and the dead work needed to de-
velop IL. lie argued that some Of these
mining leases would inevitabl be for |
feited, owing 10 noncompliance with
la Dor conditions. So he waited. His
foresight had not deceived him. As
the leases fell through he lodged his
application and secured them, always
keeping his eye steadily on that big
plum, the Monte Cristo block. He
waited five years before this last lease
was obtained.
Then he went to work all alone,
not seeing another human
being for months. He sunk a shaft,
timbered II, filed bags with tho dirt
below, climbed to the surface and
hauled them up. He drove and cross
cut on two levels. and sunk again
about fifty feet of very hard
oxidized cement How a man of his
age could have done this heavy work
unaided is marvel: but OF this drive
ne washed fifteen loads for "A yield of
9, ls9 diamonds, and proved the drift to
be the commencement OF n deep lead.
After this he sunk an air shaft. which
was destroyed by food, and before he
could get another one completed he such
cumbed to bad air and was laid up for
six months. AS soon as ho was able to
work again he followed up this drive
Will -VO itCb W tCst bhC CAbCht
OF TIE drift, sank third shaft and
from this one opened up shallow level
that he christened the Bonanza
So far, although sending parcels of
gems to London. Captain Rogers had
kept his own counsel, but now, having
proved his property. he invited experts
TO visit II, and very astonished they
were. They found that this dauntless
octogenarian had with his own hands
accomplished the work Of opening up
great mine. displaying such consuma
mate Judgment that the upper leve,
offered room for 200 men to start block
Ing; that the drift had been traced T.
within $50 feet OF Its matrix (whico
crops out on an adjacent hill), and sufh
hcient of the forty feet laid bare to-
WELD q ton of diamonds! The whole
of this drift Is diamond bearing; it is
found 10 average 600 stones TO one
horse load Of "a cubic feet, and in ono
part yielded $500 stones to the load.
This one lease is for twenty acres
The Monte Cristo mine itself 10 .
veritablc mountain Of diamonds, pro-
nounced by experts the richest mine
ever known In the world The stones