Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1897-07-08
Romance Gone.
FINDING PRECIOUS OLA
MONDS NOW is THE MOST
PROSAIC AND PRAC-
TlCAL OF MINING
PURSUITS.

If the visitor to Capetown will
go on board the long train of Eng
fish coaches that leaves the city
every evening and remain in them
while the engine hauls them up the
steep grades that lead to the high
interior African plateaus lie will
find himself after two days weary
travel approaching great cloud of
dust that seems to fill the horizon.
Under this cloud lies Kimberley. the
wonderful diamond city that rose
out of the desert twenty-three years
ago, and from whose mines over
seven tons of diamonds, valued at
over $3.50, 100000, have since been
taken. The days of the early rush
es when men made fortunes in an
hour have passed away. The dia-
mond fields are now owned by one
great company, which carefully
limits the product SO as not to glut
the market, and the discovery of
even an unusually large and fine
diamond causes only Il faint ripple
OF interest. The only romance
connected with the fields today lies
in the never ccnslnS attempts to
steal the diamonds, and the adven-
lures of the police in their efforts
To arrest the thieves.
The first diamond Of South At
RIGA was found in 1867, and was
afterwards sold for $500. Two
years later the great Star of South
Africa was found, IA stone now
valued ut $l25,000. The discovery
Of this was the signal for the rush
10 the fields, but it was not until
July ,, 1871, that Kimberley was
founded and the first work done on
the mines there.
Previous to this diamonds had
been taken from the bed of the
Vaal river. some fifteen miles dis
tant. The Kimberley mines them
selves were in the midst of tree
less, waterless desert, where the
first miners sickened and died like
sheep. Four mines were finally
located. They all lie in circle
about three and half miles in d.
ameter. Each is of more or less
circular or elliptical form, and is
from one hundred to five hundred
yards in circumference. On the
unbroken surface of the ground,
which, of course, is no longer to be
seen, there was nothing TO distin-
guish the area of the mines from
that of the surrounding ground. 1t
was not until a depth of some forty
feet was reached that the difference
of the soil became marked, and
only at depth of three hundred
feet that the "blue" that is now
considered the characteristic dia-
mond- bearing rock was reached.
The soil above, except the mere
top dressing, was all "blue" once,
but the action of the elements OK
idized it into similarity to the sur
rounding soil.
Each of these mines may be
likened to pipe or cylinder, set
vertically in the ground, cutting
through the ordinary strata and
going down to an unknown depth.
Inside the pipe the diamonds are
pretty regularly distributed; out
side it Il man might search forever
and never find Il single carat. The
sides of the pipe are in the main
perpendicular, but by no means
even or smooth. In some of the
mines the sides contract rather
smartly, but afterwards open out
again to a slightly larger size than
before.
The four mines are named Kim
berley, DeBeers, DuToit's Pan and
Bullfontein. The Kimberly was
the first to be opened up. Across
it roads fifteen feet wide were laid
out at close intervals and between
them claims thirty-on feet square
were taken up. The owner of each
of these eXcayated all the dirt in
it and wheeled it along the roads
to the outside of the mine, where
he sorted it and picked out the dia-
mOnds.
The roads were continually I'M
by the work and fell into
the shafts, causing death and de-
struction. So a new system was
devised. All around the great pit
were erected, each three
stories high. From the top -story |
wire cables were run to the center
claims of the pit; from the second
story they were run to the inter
mediate claims, and from the low
est story to these in the outer tier.
On these cables baskets of dirt
were hauled out by hoG, power
IN ioweEed to the ground and car