Gem-Stones and Their Distinctive Characters

by George Frederick Herbert Smith

KIMBERLEY MINE, 1872

This remarkable discovery attracted immediate attention to the potentialities of a country which produced diamonds of such a size, and prospectors began to swarm into the district, gradually spreading up the Vaal River. For some little time not much success was experienced, but at length, early in 1870, a rich find was made at Klipdrift, now known as Barkly West, which was on the banks of the Vaal River immediately opposite the Mission camp at Pniel. The number of miners steadily increased until the population on the two sides of the river included altogether some four or five thousand people, and there was every appearance of stability in the existing order of things. But a vast change came over the scene upon the discovery of still richer mines lying to the south-east and some distance from the river. The ground was actually situated on the route traversed by parties hurrying to the Vaal River, but no one dreamed of the wealth that lay under their feet. The first discovery was made in August 1870 at the farm Jagersfontein, near Fauresmith in Orange River Colony, by De Klerk, the intelligent overseer, who noticed in the dry bed of a stream a number of garnets, and, knowing that they often accompanied diamond, had the curiosity to investigate the point. He was immediately rewarded by finding a fine diamond weighing 50 carats. In the following month diamonds were discovered about twenty miles from Klipdrift at Dutoitspan on the Dorstfontein farm, and a little later also on the contiguous farm of Bultfontein; a diamond was actually found in the mortar used in the homestead of the latter farm. Early in May 1871 diamonds were found about two miles away on De Beers’ farm, Vooruitzigt, and two months later, in July, a far richer find was made on the same farm at a spot which was first named Colesberg Kopje, the initial band of prospectors having come from the town of that name near the Orange River, but was subsequently known as Kimberley after the Secretary of State for the Colonies at that time. Soon a large and prosperous town sprang up close to the mines; it rapidly grew in size and importance, and to this day remains the centre of the diamond-mining industry. Subsequent prospecting proved almost blank until the discovery of the Premier or Wesselton mine on Wesselton farm, about four miles from Kimberley, in September 1890; it received the former name after Rhodes, who was Premier of Cape Colony at that date. No further discovery of any importance was made until, in 1902, diamonds were found about twenty miles north-west-north of Pretoria in the Transvaal, at the new Premier mine, now famed as the producer of the gigantic Cullinan diamond.

PLATE XVII

KIMBERLEY MINE, 1874

PLATE XVIII

KIMBERLEY MINE, 1881

The Kimberley mines were at first known as the ‘dry diggings’ on account of their arid surroundings in contradistinction to the ‘river diggings’ by the Vaal. The dearth of water was at first one of the great difficulties in the way of working the former mines, although subsequently the accumulation of underground water at lower levels proved a great obstacle to the working of the mines. The ‘river diggings’ were of a type similar to that met with in India and Brazil, the diamonds occurring in a gravelly deposit of limited thickness beneath which was barren rock, but the Kimberley mines presented a phenomenon hitherto without precedent in the whole history of diamond mining. The diamonds were found in a loose surface deposit, which was easily worked, and for some time the prospectors thought that the underlying limestone corresponded to the bedrock of the river gravel, until at length one more curious than his fellows investigated the yellowish ground underneath, and found to his surprise that it was even richer than the surface layer. Immediately a rush was made back to the deserted claims, and the mines were busier than ever. This ‘yellow ground,’ as it is popularly called, was much decomposed and easy, therefore, to work and sift. About fifty to sixty feet (15–18 m.) below the surface, however, it passed into a far harder rock, which from its colour is known as the ‘blue ground’; this also, to the unexpected pleasure of the miners, turned out to contain diamonds. Difficulties arose as each claim, 30 by 30 Dutch feet (about 31 English feet or 9·45 metres square) in area, was worked downwards. In the Kimberley mine ([Plate XVI]) access to the various claims was secured by retaining parallel strips, 15 feet wide, each claim being, therefore, reduced in width to 22½ feet, to form roadways running from side to side of the mine in one direction. These, however, soon gave way, not only because of the falling of the earth composing them, but because they were undermined and undercut by the owners of the adjacent claims. By the end of 1872 the last roadway had disappeared, and the mine presented the appearance of a vast pit. In order to obtain access to the claims without intruding on those lying between, and to provide for the hauling of the loads of earth to the surface, an ingenious system of wire cables in three tiers ([Plate XVII]) was erected, the lowest tier being connected to the outermost claims, the second to claims farther from the edge, and the highest to claims in the centre of the pit. The mine at that date presented a most remarkable spectacle, resembling an enormous radiating cobweb, which had a weird charm by night as the moonlight softly illuminated it, and by day, owing to the perpetual ring of the flanged wheels of the trucks on the running wires, twanged like some gigantic æolian harp. This system fulfilled its purpose admirably until, with increasing depth of the workings, other serious difficulties arose. Deprived of the support of the hard blue ground, the walls of the mine tended to collapse, and additional trouble was caused by the underground water that percolated into the mine. By the end of 1883 the floor of the Kimberley mine was almost entirely covered by falls of ‘reef’ ([Plate XVIII]), as the surrounding rocks are termed, the depth then being about 400 feet (122 m.). In the De Beers mine, in spite of the precaution taken to prevent falls of reef by cutting the walls of the mine back in terraces, falls occurred continuously in 1884, and by 1887, at a depth of 350 feet (107 m.), all attempts at open working had to be abandoned. In the Dutoitspan mine buttresses of blue ground were left, which held back the reef for some years, but ultimately the mine became unsafe, and in March 1886 a disastrous fall took place, in which eighteen miners—eight white men and ten Kafirs—lost their lives. The Bultfontein mine was worked to the great depth of 500 feet (152 m.), but falls occurred in 1889 and put an end to open working. In all cases, therefore, the ultimate end was the same: the floor of the mine became covered with a mass of worthless reef, which rendered mining from above ground dangerous, and, indeed, impossible except at prohibitive cost. It was then clearly necessary to effect access to the diamond-bearing ground by means of shafts sunk at a sufficient distance from the mine to remove any fear of falls of reef. For such schemes co-operative working was absolutely essential. [Plate XIX] illustrates the desolate character of the Kimberley mine above ground and the vastness of the yawning pit, which is over 1000 feet (300 m.) in depth.

PLATE XIX