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a fashion, but their replies lacked intelligence, and betrayed a low order of intellect. I must however, in justice, premise that this particular group was composed of the most inferior specimens of natives. For instance, I found that 9 or 10 comprised their highest familiar notation; 15 and upward puzzled them; higher figures could only be expressed by a clumsy periphrasis; while 200 or 300 was quite beyond their realization, and was vaguely conceived as "a very great number." "How old are you?" I inquired of one; but the overseer explained that none of them have the least idea of their own ages their sole landmarks are certain important events which befell their tribes, such as some particular war, a great famine, a general drought or cattle-sickness. "Only last week," he added, “a Kaffir being asked a similar question, and replying in total ignorance, a European interposed- Let me look at your teeth. I will soon tell you. Why, you must be 100 at least. The native immediately assembled his fellows around him, and told them that the Baas (master) had pronounced him 100 years old, in an ecstasy of pride at the attainment of an age which he considered added so much to his dignity." One Kaffir rejoiced in a snakeskin charm round his neck; another wore a string his sole article of vesture-tied to his thigh, whence depended a small leather pocket containing five or six shillings a large sum for a wild native-and his working ticket. The only drinks allowed are tea, coffee, or water; and I was struck with the simple and clever device for a constantly cool supply of the last, by means of common bags of coarse canvas, which, when soaked, became sufficiently impermeable to retain the bulk of the fluid, but sufficiently porous to admit of a continual oozing and icy evaporation.

While we were casually conversing, I was startled by a terrific roar, followed by a reverberation and quivering of the walls and arches as though convulsed by an earthquake, and by a violent rush of wind which instantly extinguished every light in the vicinity. "Doubtless a hideous catastrophe," I reflected: "some portion of the mine has fallen in; we are imprisoned like rats in a trap, and shall feed on each other's carcasses until released by a lingering death." Profound silence in the pitch-darkness, only broken

by the heavy breathing of the native workmen, and after a few seconds by the scraping of lucifer-matches for relighting our candles. Nobody seemed in the least discomposed, and the answer to my awestricken inquiry was, "Oh, nothing at all; only dynamite blasting in an adjacent chamber." chamber." I afterward found that these explosions were of frequent occurrence; but on each occasion, to resist the impulse of a startled jump taxed the strongest

nerves.

On

Let us turn our attention from the personal to the material for which thousands of human beings in this district are toiling day and night about 800 feet below ground. The diamondiferous earth, locally termed the." blue," is reached at a varying depth, and is found in a hardened but friable condition. It is detached with comparative ease, and the process of filling trucks, each of which holds 1600 lb., is carried on unceasingly, on a very large scale, and with the utmost rapidity. The contents are hauled to the top by powerful steam machinery; and if we follow their further destination, the scene changes in sudden and wondrous contrast from dark stifling tunnels to bright sunshiny farms, where the soil is turned up, and watered and harrowed, and vivified by the action of wind and sun, and where the resulting crop is-diamonds. reaching the surface the "blue" is tilted into railway wagons, and by means of divergent lines of rails and wire-ropes, is bauled in vast masses into the adjacent open country, where it is distributed over the flat to a depth of 24 feet. The extensive area so occupied is protected by barbed-wire fencing 10 feet high, and is guarded by patrols both by day and by night. The effects of the weather cause the friable lumps to disintegrate still further, the process is aided by alternate harrowing and watering, and in about six months all but the most obdurate fragments, which are left for further treatment varying from three months to a year, are reduced to a size which admits of their being subjected to the washing-machines. Trains of carts convey the harvest to machinery sheds, where it is subjected to processes which in corn would be analogous to threshing, winnowing, and sifting. Roughly described, an endless chain supporting large pans carries the diamondearth up to a platform, and thence pitches

it, automatically, into cisterns of water; revolving metal arms stir and break up the mass; the muddy liquid flows away, and the solid residue passes over a succession of large vibrating sieves with differentsized meshes, thus effecting a separation into four sizes. The largest is composed of pebbles somewhat smaller than walnuts, is turned over by searchers on the chance that it may contain some unusually large diamonds, and is then carted away as rubbish. I may remark that the amount of débris from various sources is so considerable that its disposal is somewhat of a puzzle, and is the origin of gigantic earthmounds in various parts of the country, and that the superficial crater of one of the mines, the "Kimberley," is marked by the spontaneous, never-ending combustion of waste shale. The other three sizes are subjected to a process devised at Kimberley, and absolutely charming through its efficiency, simplicity, and ingenuity. Without illustrations, a complete description of this "pulsator," as it is called, would be impracticable, but the following statement may serve to explain its general principle :*

[Be it remembered that the diamondiferous mass is made up of substances of different specific gravity, whereof the greater part, which consists of natural soil, mica, and other components, is the lightest; while the small residue, consisting of garnets, "olivine," iron pyrites, and diamonds, are much heavier. We must also bear in mind that the property of a fluid is to transmit a pressure applied to it in every direction, irrespective of distance, area, bulk, etc. Now imagine a No. 1 pan half filled with water, and just above the fluid a fixed zinc perforated plate. The plate is covered with a layer of buckshot, and above the buckshot is some of the sifted earth in which the diamonds are lurking. The apparatus is completed by an adjacent open No. 2 pan of water, which cominunicates with No. 1 by a broad tube. Set the machinery at work. A large flap of wood bestows a smart box on the ear-speaking in hyperbolical language- on the water-surface of No. 2 pan; the fluid quivers with indignation, transmits its quivering downward, then through the broad connecting-tube,

and so on to the water in No. 1 pan. Here, too, the water vexedly throbs up, squirts through the perforated plate, hustles the layer of buckshot, and thereby stirs up the superincumbent diamondiferous layer. But the irritated fluid rapidly regains its composure, is followed by the buckshot in a great hurry, then by the heavier particles among which are the diamonds, while on the top of all leisurely reposes the lightest useless residue which has been successfully eliminated. I estimated the number of these pulsations at 110 per minute. Now stop the machine ; let all the water drain off the zinc plate; remove the thick top layer, which is worthless, and then gather together the deposit spread over the buckshot, and to which all the diamond have fled.]

The name "pulsator" is very appropriately bestowed on this clever piece of mechanism. Gently placing my hand on the top of the mass being treated, I am startled by a sensation of lifelike throbbing throughout the whole of the substanceprecisely such as one might suppose the throbbing of the femoral artery of an elephant in a raging fever.. For the sake of simplicity I have omitted two or three ingenious little details. For instance, the size of the stirabout buckshot varies in proportion to that of the component particles of the stuff to be "pulsated," but each machine acts with such unerring fidelity that never by any chance is a diamond allowed to loiter in the top rubbishlayer. "Here," said my guide, picking out a tiny white pebble, is a 1-carat stone, worth about £2 in its present condition," and he flicked it away as carelessly as though shooting a pea into a pigtub. "I congratulate your Company on its affluence," I remarked with would-be irony, "since it can afford thus to throw £2 into the dirt.'' "You are mistaken," was the rejoinder; "that diamond will inevitably be brought to light again. To test the accuracy of our working, we are wont constantly to throw marked diamonds into the pulsating-pan, and we never fail to recover them."

66

On the assumption-which is generally received as approximately accurate that the previous processes of elimination have reduced the original bulk contained in a truck to its one-hundredth part, the proverbial difficulty of finding a needle in a bottle of hay is applicable here, and hence

36

**A A LA ***GANY NAME Brew; and in MAGNA 9 **** wanton on the full stretch,

ja adorned by frequently changing VR WIPATE Y quierestazed siftings; so that at one epe, toe prior to be discov. KANA KAMARA, D} #lones no larger than peppersoane, wine at another they are as big we waz, truke, The facities for theft by Varopean workers are obvions, inasmuch ww warehong of their persons-as in the Cam of natives, to be hereafter described in out of the question; and there is no doubt that the Company is consequently mubjected to heavy losses, which some experte estimate as being as high as 10 per bent be, $10 worth is stolen out of every £100 worth discovered. Numerous placards forbid visitors to handle the gravel. How do you know," I inquire, that 1, a perfect stranger to you, have not alrendy secreted two or three diamonds under my tongue or up my sleeve ?" "No fear, in the smiling reply; "unknown to yourself, you are being carefully and incessantly watched," And this startling

The

For Samond labor the Comment be from Goremmens andre Cafe mo TUSA, of whom ADDED & ten dhe etare expense, and whose addra a the proact, woleni sansequently ingested. might almost be axed ericle. Ther are grouped together by tribes: the separate and went medem is ignored: they are well and way brused: an occaKional whack from the warders habitually constitates their punishments; and their food comprises, together with other allow ances, the enormous dally meat-ration of 1; ib., plus a large supply of bread. The traditional rolicking life on the ocean wave" dwindles into duiness compared with a "life in a convict-yard" at Kimberley. They are every night searched to the very skin to prevent them pilfering diamonds.

Thus we have followed the stages of mining, farining, washing, sifting, searching, and finding, during which diamonds have been discovered in small numbers, but generally of exceptional size, in the mine, a few more in the "blue" exposed in the open fields, but by far the greater number in the sorting-houses. Next, the scene reverts to the rooms in the De Beers office, where all the stones are sent for sale. Considering the vast treasure it contains, the building is of a flimsy nature, with little provision against fire or thieves beyond one or two safes, and a

few loaded revolvers on the table, ready to be snatched up for instant use. Mr. Joseph, we may assume, is still arguing the question of £26,000 or £26,400 before one parcel; but on another adjacent table are spread out other diamonds worth about £60,000 in their rough state. their rough state. These are arranged in about eight rows, each containing seven or eight little heaps, and, moreover, so disposed as to be graduated both according to color, from white to darkish yellow-and to size, from pin's heads to nutmegs. A large proportion are characterized by a curious mathematical regularity of shape-perfect octahedrons being the most frequent, with occasional dodecahedrons; but it is out of the question to muster up any admiration for them in their present condition. They have been cleaned by immersion in a solution of boiling water and acid; yet they still resemble bits of common dull glass, and can only be rendered interesting by a peremptory demand on prophetic imagination. Even a 400-carat diamond, found the previous day, marking an era in the De Beers discoveries, and which is now produced out of an old tin box easily to be prized open by a schoolboy with his knife, cannot produce a vestige of enthusiasm among the Company, although it makes a stir among the outside public. It is a perfect octahedron of a distinctly yellow color, about the size of a partridge's egg, and even when cut will be of a weight far in excess of the Koh-i-noor. Though of very high value, it can never become of world-wide repute, inasmuch as it is not of the first water. Indeed there is reason to surmise that only a minority of the Kimberley findings are brilliants, and that all such are absorbed into the Brazilian diamonds which constitute family jewelry handed down as heirlooms of great value. "How can you distinguish true from false diamonds?" I ask. By common-sense, ," is the contemptuous reply of experts so trained by long experience that they jump at accurate conclusions without being able to trace the process thereof. It was pointed out, besides, that by crackling large stones together in the hand the noise produced is of a peculiar sharp grating sound. Admirable only unfortunately few of us possess enough large diamonds to enable us to carry out the experiment. The expense of cutting and polishing is estimated as

high as 60 per cent of their value, and the loss of weight incurred thereby frequently amounts to two-thirds of their original carats. Among the curiosities of the collection are fancy stones of queer shapes and colors-deep yellow, dark purple, and prismatic shades. But all diamonds-good, bad, and indifferentare transmitted to Europe at the present rate of 40,000 or 50,000 carats weekly, and ultimately find their way into the hands of the Amsterdam cutters.*

By degrees the De Beers Company has bought up the four principal mines in the district, which are included in the limited space of four square miles, and comprise the Kimberley, area 31 acres; Du Toits, 35 acres; Bultfontein, 27 acres; while the De Beers proper, the most valuable of all, spreads over 18 acres. In addition, it has a large proprietorship in Brazilian mines. The directors therefore strenuously insist, with every appearance of sound reasoning, that the purchase of their shares should not be regarded as a speculation like gold-mine property, but as a safe and permanent investment. They claim that, being the chief diamondproducers in the world, they can so regulate the issues of stones to the market that they can maintain a steadily uniform price, and that their unworked blue," even at the present level, will suffice for many years' harvest on the existing scale. But as yet the bottom has not been plumbed, and the deeper the shaft the richer the produce. I may mention the theory, which, however crude, is not entirely without verisimilitude, that the diamondiferous material has been thrust up by igneous agency from immense profundity through a superincumbent mass; that the same agent had long ago crystallized the diamonds; and that if we could dig down to that crust we should find the precious stones sticking to the roof like pieces of suet in a pudding. Nor is it argued-can there be the smallest doubt! -after such long and extensive experience, as to the uniform average richness of the earth. For instance, the accepted estimate that one De Beers truck-load will produce 14 carat is useful and true in theory only, but that a thousand loads will

* The value of the diamonds produced from the four principal Kimberley mines in 1887 was £4,033,332.