The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-11-08

killed. with jewels!
A mighty farm where the brilliants
lie out under the sun, and the diamond
iferous earth is worked with steam har-
rows.
These are some of the things you
may see any day here at KiD'herley.
Last year the crop from this vast dia-
mond farm amounted to $32,O00,0O0. 1t
was equal TO more than 100000 for
every working day the whole year
through. 1t was more than $40 for ev-
cry minute, or more than 81 for every
tick of the watch through all the min
4 utes of all the hours of all the days
!. of that year.
Mining the Blue.
AL the soil of this mighty farm has
been taken out of the diamond pipes
There are FIVE of these pipes at
Kimberley, and each contains pud-
ding of this blue clay, sprinkled with
white eurrants of diamonds. The pipes
range from 500 feet to several times
that in diameter. Two of them, the
Kimberley and the De Beers, have al
ready been excavated to a depth of
more than 1000 feet, and the three
others-the Wesselton, the Bulfontein
and the Dutoitspan-are now being
mined at 500 or more feet from the sur
face. In every pipe the blue rock has
been found continuous, and everywhere
it is peppered with diamonds. How far
down the deposits go no one knows.
In the Kimberley they have been prob
ed to depth of more than half mile,
so that it is no exaggeration to say
that there are hundreds of millions of
dollars worth of diamonds in sight
As to the origin of the gems, they
are supposed to be volcanic, and Mr..
Gardiner Williams, who managed the
mines for twenty years, believes that
they were shot up by mud volcanoes.
There is no doubt bat that the pipes
were formed by some CONFUSION of ma
ture, and that it was at about the same
The mining consists of blasting out
and raising to the surface the blue clay
containing the diamonds.
On the Diamond Floors. !
have spent a part of this week in
going with the diamond ore to the fields
or floors where it is left to weather, and
in following it to the washing machines
where the jewels are finally won. As
the rock comes to the surface it bears
no sign of them. I have looked over
several thousand cars of it, but have
not seen a single brilliant imbedded in
the blue, and 1 am told that the price
less stones are seldom discovered, ex-
eept when they come out in the wash
ing.
This blue ground is as hard as rock,
/ can just scratch it with my knife. 1t
is so hard that YOU could drive a nail
with a chunk of it, and it takes heavy
hammer to break it, The ground is car
ried from the mines to the floors and
spread out there to a depth of one foot,
all over the surface. 1t lies out for
about a year, being plowed and har
rowed from time to time. If the wealth
er is dry it is sprinkled, and as re-
suit is so melts or softens that the dia-
monds can be washed out of it.
Every one of these great mines has
its own fields for such rock-weathering.
There are at least 5000 acres in all. OF
these, in the neighbOrhood of 1000 acres
belong to each pipe, and all are now
covered with this rock, containing dia- .
monds. There are about 100000 ear
loads lying out under the sun, and L
am told that there IS something like
So, 900, 900 worth of diamonds in them.
Guarding the Fields.
In looking over these fields one sell
dom sees diamonds, but the brilliants 4
are there and they must be carefully a
guarded. Think of $25,OOO,OOO beings
scattered over the earth within easy I
reach of any town of 10000 in the h
SUITES anu Npu nav SAiS SAeeAef
ton at Kimberley. You would imagine o
hat the fields would be raided and the d
stuff carried off 1t is not. The fields c
ire guarded day and night by men who o
march with guns in their hands. They S
nave electric lights which keep them a
bright from sunset to sunrise, and they
ire surrounded by high fences of barb o
"A wire. the strands being so close to-
yether that a man can not crawl o
through. and so high that he cannot $
,asily climb over them. There are two o
# these fences around every field. They i
IRE about twenty or thirty feet apart, a
md the guards march between them.
f a thief could crawl over the first C.
ence he would be sure to be shot be- q
ore he got to the second, and so the i'e
diamonds are comparatively safe. II
~ TNs.-.o,de IE