The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-05-30
WHERE DIAMONDS GROW.
The Famous Find Of Twenty Five
Years Ago.

Ihe Great Prize Which the Bsiton Would
"fest From the Boer in SoutI, Africa
HOW the Mining is Done, and How the
Miners are Misunderstanding Fowls
to Pick Up the Precious Stones.
Ihefe was bit of poetic justice in
the announcement short time ago, that
the British Government, or the Govern
menu OF Cape Colony, had seized the
famous Kimberley De- Beers diamond
mines. and put their manager under
arrest for completely with the recent
raid upon the Transvaal. For, as mat
ter OF fact, the feud between the British
and the Beers in South Africa, which
has long been a source Of much fnnGy-
ance and now threatens to involsa Eng
land in serious war, had its origin in
those very mines. This was the case
In threefold measure. First, the kim
berley diamond fields welo once the pro-
rerty of Beers, as the names of several
of the mines indicate. The property
was bought by British prospeotors for a
mere trifs, and, next to Cape Colony,
| there WAS developed the richest mining
region on the face Of the globe. The
wrath of the Beers ut thus losing SO rich
a prize was indescribable and has never
| abated. For quarter of a century they
have brooded over it and longed for re-
yenge. In the next place it was the
wealth derived from these mines that
made Cecil Rhodes the powerful leader
he has been for many years and that in
spired him with the imperial ambition to
make all of South Africa British from
the Cape to the Zambesi. And in the
third place it was this discovery of enor-
nous wealth on the old Boer far MS at
| Kimberley that led English adventurers
| to look farther end to find and open the
wondrous gold mines of the Rand.
Apart. however, from this, the mines
are a singularly interesting place. There
is nothing else like them in the world.
The gold mines Of the Rand are practi-
cally duplicated in Australia and Cali
fornia But the Kimberley diamond
mines or fields, are unique. Tho name
fields"is appropriately to be applied to
them. There are literally fields Of hun
dreds of acres covareu with diamonds, as
elsewhere they might be covered with
beets or turnips. They lie only a few
miles from tho desolate waste Of the Great
Karoo, which for hundreds Of miles is
destitute of trees and shrubs, except
II tkon cio ator
a short distance close around Kimberley
are fertile plains. But when the mines
are reached u scene of utter desolation
is presented. There are hundreds of
acres absolutely void of trees or grass or
any living thing. They are gray, bare
and barren. Yet they are the richest
fields IN the world, for they are thioKly
strewn with diamonds, and any one Of
ths dull clods may contain gein worth
kings ransom.
The mines were discovered just twenty
five years ago by the finding of some dia-
rnonls in the surface sell. They were on
three adjoining farms called Voornitziqt,
Bultfontein and Dorsfo ntein; these were
tho property Of Beers, but were soon pur-
chased by Englishmen for what seemed
q handsome price, but was really moro
tri1e in comparison with the wealth that
hns since been taken from the property.
The name Voornitziqt is moro easily de-
fined than pronounced 1t means simply
place commanding an extensive view.
Bultfontein means spring or fountain
of water on a long low hill or "bult."
Dorstfontein means literally thirst TO I'M
is quenehed. These threo farms COM
prised in all about forty five thousand
acres, in which area are now included
the damond mines and part Of the town
Of Kimberley. The name DsBeers, given
to one of the richest group of mines is
that of tho former Dutch owner of the
Voornitziat farm, and that of Dutoit-
span is taken from that of the French
Huguenot family of nuToit which for
merly owned Dorstfontein.
The mines are open pits from three to
five hundred feet in depth, though in
some Of them there are underground
| workings ut much greater depths. The
soil in which the gems are found is
called by the miners "blue,' from its
color, and is, indeed, now known by that
name even among scientific men. It
seems to be tough, dry mud of volcanic
origin, sometimes hardened into actual
stone. 1t is drilled. blasted by dynamite,
drawn to the surface by series Of cars
hung on rope railways, and then dumped
Oh the depositing floors or fields, for SO
hard and tough is it that it requires from
| three to twelve months exposure to the
weather before it can finally be broken
up, washed and sorted.
If one descends to the bottom of one of
the mines he will find hundreds, perhaps
thousands or more of negro workmen.
They are all splendidly built men, of
pure negro blood. They drill the blast
| ing holes with power drills, or sometimes
with hand drills and sledse hammers,
| under the orders of white superintendent IS
After the blast is fired they work out the
loosened ground with pick and sho vel,
| load it into trucks and dunn il on the