The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-07-14

the discovery and development OF the
mines came an immense rush, so that
all kinds of ordinary labor are TO be
had e. fair prices. Moreover, a great
many people who thought to settle in
Mashona Land and Matabele Land,
several hundred mics north of
Johannesburg. have been disappointed
and have returned 10 the Transvaal.
Then. too. almost every kind of bust
ness is represented in some way or
other, and the business man of
johannesburg has his typewriter and
rides his bicycle and in general has all
the facilities and convenienceS which
one enjoys here. People who so out
to South Africa, expecting to lind
themselves in a heather land, will be
apt ito be disappointed by the entirely
sophisticated state of things which
greet him. He will find at Johannes
burg, for example. a stock exchange.
that does a volume of business, that
would do credit to a town of ten times
the population. In fact, speculation in
mining stock is one of the chief char
aoteristics of the place. Everybody
speculates and shares go up and
down; there are pools and bull move
ments. and bear raids and 'boOms.'
and all the diversions that go to make
the stock exchanges of London or
New York interesting.
The town is rapidly building up
with handsome brick blocks and fine
residences, and tasteful churches;
streets are being paved. and the only
thing so far lacking are good public
school facilities. Not the least strik-
ing characteristic of the country is
the presence of the gold mines on a
green prairie. There are no noun
tains anywhere about, and the usual
bare, desert-looking mining country is
lacking. Before the mines were dis
covered. all this area was good farm
ing land and the cautious old S3oers
used to fight off the prospectors and,
in fact in the early days of the
Transvaal, there was heavy fine at
tached to prospecting anywhere in the
republic. Of course that is all changed
now, but it is the English rather than
the native Beers, who have made
money out of the mines.
The Whole Development "a Matter
of Ten Years.
1.-The discovery of the auriferous
blanket or cOnglomerate beds on the
Wmwatersrand. came in 1885: 50 you
see that this wonderful district is just
ten years old. In 1885, the sum of
10000 would have sufficed to have
purchased all the farms of the entire
district. Single claims have been sold
for two or three times this sum- The
news of the discoveries soon reached
Kimberly. and it was mainly the Kim
berly crowd which took hold and de-
veloped the mines. The deposits were
found in d shale unlike anything else
anywhere in the world They are not
in quartzite veins. but in associated
beds of a sort Of conglomerate. which
is known as a reef The 1nain reef
is about 1 200 feet wide, and the pr,n-
cipal workings have strung along for
about eleven miles. Here is the great
Robinson mine, the Victoria Rand.
and others which have given fame TO
the region.
1T was on account of the pecu-
liar geological character of the
formation and the unexpected
presence of gold in a conglcmerate
bed, that at first led even expert en-
gineers to declare the fields worthless.
Indeed, one celebrated engineer sent
out at heavy expense, pronounced the