Woodruff County news. [volume] (McCrory, Ark.) 1901-1910, 1907-08-15

easiest method Of arriving At y
verizatlon process for the NIP, pul'
washing in the search for dianaa aate
He states, and certainly thero :,
better authority than the genera, . no
ager OF the great DeBeers syndio .,ai'
mining properties, controlling 20
does, 80 per cent of the worIa,N II
mond output he says that M ula'
walking over that deposit bas e ~uV.
yet found a diamond on the cue s'er
In the Pike county diamond e sace'
there has been no spreading ON. 'us :.
the blue Acknowledging clay for =. a., ~
integration-there has been nra US.
cally no pan-washing-no macSino.
beyond the core drills referred To- ~
scientific mining whatever, but mora ~
surface work. and yet 14O diamonds
have been picked up from the gro;sl
without any mining Of the cra}er ~
pipe. "
Takes Trouble to Find Diamora. !
1t has been stated that less tb.,
3-S OF a carat of diamond is found n :
ton of earth in the South Afr,,.s
mines. The annual report of ~
Jagersfontein Mining Company ,rat
published, states that for the asna,
year ending March, 1907 the outnut =.
diamonds amounted to 219,275 ID nov
ats out of 2,405,581 loads of earth
washed. This is less than ITO Of !.
carat to the load, yet with the immenco
labor excavating, hauling and WASHING
10 loads of earth to get an AVERAGE ~
one carat of diamonds, the net profits
for the year were 429,373 pounds
equivalent to over 100000 for hi,
one mine, one of the group operated By
the DeBeers syndicate.
The South African Discoveries
Where the great diamond mines NJ
South Africa now are the children of
the Dutch settlers had diamonds for
playthings for many years before tbeir
value was discovered. They were wont
to pick from the river gravel bright
and beautifully colored pebbles which
abounded there. One day a child of
family named Jacobs found onn
brighter than usual, and its mother
remarked about it casually to neigh.
Dor, Schalk Van Neikirk, who asked to
see it. 1t could not be found, but finally
it was picked up in the yard, where
it had been thrown with Others
Schalk Van Niekirk proposed to buy
it, but the honest old woman laughed
at the idea of taking pay for pebble
and told him to take it along He
entrusted it to John OReilly, trader,
who offered it to many merchants but
none believed it to be of any value.
until finally Mr.. Reilly would probably
have thrown it away, but Lorenzo
Boyes, civil commissioner at Coles.
berg CHANGED to see it, and by his
advice it was sent to DR.. w. GuybOn
Atherston, a noted mineralogist, who
pronounced it a diamond, placed a
valuation of $4,000 on it cat which price
Sir Phillip Wodehouse, governor of the
Cape, bought it,, and said there were
more where that came from. His opln
ion was openly derided, even by men
with pretensions to scientific attain.
ments, who proved to their own salts
faction that it was impossible for dla'
monds in paying quantities to be found
IN such a geological formation, New
srtheless, he persisted, and although
no finds of consequence were made
for years afterward, he recommended
that the home government of England
make an appropriation for a thorough
investigation.
This was rendered superfluous, how
ever, by the finding by shepherd O07
of stone which he sold to Schalk van
Niekirk for what to him was a for
tune, consisting of 500 sheep, 10 oxen
and a horse. The new owner now
ever, sold it forthwith for S55,OOV, ana
it was finally bought by Earl Dualv
for S125,000.
This great find brought prospectus
from Europe, Asia. Africa and Amera
by thousands and the great era VI
prospecting and development SET
without governmental aid. Inc AfAar
sas find followed, in a measure 'n''
of South Africa.