THE DIAMOND DIGGINGS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 182, 2 August 1881, Page 1

THE DIAMOND DIGGINGS.

(From The Scotsman April 4.)

The third diamond fields and; that which now yields the chief supply, is the South African, an interesting 'acceunt of which was given by Mr _£. W. Mu*ray,a Cape colonist, 'afc : a : 're_ent meetitig of the London; Society' of Arts. There, as in 3razil, . diamonds j were/ being handled By/people who. bad not the remotest idea* of their value. ! The child of a Boer on the banks df tie Vaal river, was playing .with pome pretty pebbles whiebshe had picked up, when one of them by its lustre at- [ traeted) the; attention- of a- passing •trader. :Havid^(^_fia_d tbLtb-l igirl'a > ;ftth^r.his;bejief ;that the(pebbleL ; was a diamond*; the, irader., agreed tq lhalve I .the profit with hinr should his j surmise i prove^ddrreetii The* Queen's jeVeliers . pronpnnced itft Ldi^biuj. of 2L | Lc^rats, , Wdrtb,£sQO,an4 attKis, /price ifi was , purchased, by Sir; Phillip : Wood House; at that time 'Gj-overnoi^ of Cape Colony. The^receipt of ;h alf this' JiyL tiie^parent Bo6r called to bi_:recqill^ction ;; the! fact ;• t^ti He i had seen; a, similar : stone ih the ; pbssessibn-of a hati.e^- anil peeking him . out, he .'him; BaysAMr'M^rray, * .nearly . r all.hp :p.bßsessedn^soo "dheepi h ;°rs3Sj <^e.~rin exohange for his .pebble". It proved to be a diatnondof 83 Carats, and : he obtained for it i6ll;200. IThie, is tbe Btoa_» -'nb.w in: the of the i Cquntess of Dudley,raad known as the' .' Star :* of : South '-. Africa." *■■: jSuch : " finds " Mturally produced tbe wildest excilembnfe thrdugbbutL, South Africa, and ied ; tp a rush of ■.diamond seekers,; first? from, tbe , surrounding colonies*, and sopn ifroin all parfsy of. thb . world* The earl^parties had no idea qf figging fbt diamdnc l^ ; they sought for! -tliem oS Jhe surface : ;aiongJ:tha L of the; hills; r and eueeeeded tolerably L wfjll; [ An Australian l ! gold digger afrriviDg on the scejie inau-.gurated-the "cradling" unethodl employed i*^ California and Australia for the Reparation of the . gold in alluvial .-.deposit;..; .The d&ttWdiferpufrabill consisting of drift -and pebbles of aga|e> jasper^ andj: cdriielian, with here; and :there ja- diamdndj w'p dug out,! and /after th&rqtgh gashing,' the gems iweire .eadily Ipicked from Lthe gravel. \ In 1870, within a year after the first rush, there werelOOOeradles at work on the banks of the Yaal. These were known as thejywst or ri yer diggings, but alter a, time they; jwere abandoned for the more productive dry diggings. These 'were too far'frora the river to render thewashing of the diamondiferous material' possible, nor was ; jifc needed, owing to the light sandy nature of the soil. The digger had only to pass thestuff through a couple of sieves over a sorting table, when the sorter was able to pick; out whatever diamonds . ifc might contain. The first posessors of those dry "claims" dealt only with the loose upper ; soil, sinking their pits to a depth of I only three or four feet. Their sUceesjaors, however, finding the surface diggings exhausted, ;tested the rocky? stratum beneath— "a kind of, loostly-pajeked rock^ blue in colour,; and hard to crumble," which the early diggers [had. regarded as putting a period; to jtheir hopes of diamonds deeper down-^-Lfhen they were'rewarded : by ! firidmg thjat it contamedmoye andfiner diainoiid- than even ,the best surface deposits. 'Dismond mining was accordingly begun/ 1 and -with it came the need of steam machinery and other expensive pliant, necessitating the employment of a large amount, of capital and the formation of mining companies. Mines have [now been sunk to a depth of 40Qft., ini the course of which, reefs, not diampndbearing, have had to he cut through, and powerful pumps to be employed to prevent flooding, Those diambndbearing areas are circular in ahapiej and form, what are known as "pipes." ,They are : filled with intrusive rocks wjhich. have been forced up by volcanic agency almost perpendicularly through j the surrounding hqrisqntal.strata of shale, and through which, as well as thrqugb a calcareous tufa usually found on the upper parts of the "pipe," the diamonds are disseminated. Owing to the fact that a large ; portion of; tbe diamonds consist of fragments, it is generally thought that the "pipe" rock is not the true matrix of the diamonds, but that it has merely, been the agent in bringing them to : the surface from some lower deposit. The richest of the mines is tbat of Kimberley, wliicb bas an area of about seven acres. Its original possessor sold the estate, of wbibh it was a small part, for £6000, arid, it soon yielded to its purchasers from £20,000, to £25^000 per annum in rents. The Kimberley mines contain about 400 claims, which four years ago were worth threequarters of a million sterling • in August last, according to Mr Murray they could not be purchased for three ';'an(l. : a'ii^f.milUbn : sJ''..7here is no means of accurately stating the value ofi the diamond production of South Africa, but the importance of the new industry may be : gathered from the fact that the value of the diamonds sent through the Post Office in .1879 amounted to £3,685,000. Since the finding of the "Star of the South .Africa''": much larger diamonds have . turned up, notably one found in 1872, weighino* 286^ carats, from which it is believed that a brilliant weighing half as much again as the . Koh-i-noor may be cut and the still larger one found by MiRhodes, recently exhibited to the Queen. Unfortunately, the diamonds oif Soiith Africa are not all of purest water, the majority of- them being straw-tinted,, and therefore of considerable I^s _ >alue thau. CQIoU-dens specimens!,^ ' '•.'' A