Yankee Girls in Zulu Land

by Louise Vescelius Sheldon

There are somewhat poorer and smaller mines at Dutortspan, Bulfontein, and old de Boers, all comprised within a radius of three and a half miles, and the cab-carts plying for hire in the streets have no lack of custom in carrying people from mine to mine.

Most of the property in the mines is now owned by companies, individual claim-holders finding that it paid them better to consolidate than struggle with the immense working expenses of a single claim, surrounded by blocks owned by wealthy companies. When the companies first formed, there was some wild speculation with the stock, and several fortunes were made and lost in a few days by amateur stock speculators. We were invited to inspect the washing-ground of one of the large companies, and very interesting we found it. The blue ground is taken as it comes up from the mine to a plot of ground rented for the purpose, called a depositing floor, and, after being dumped down in heaps, is spread out on the ground in large, coarse lumps, just as it leaves the pick and shovel of the miner. Water is then liberally poured over it and it is left for two or three days to the action of the atmosphere; at the end of that time it loses its rock-like appearance and shows itself to be a conglomerate of pebbles, ironstone, and carbon.

It is then thrown against coarse sieves to separate the larger stones, which are flung aside, and is afterward taken to the washing-machine. This consists of a circular iron tub, rather shallow and some ten or twelve feet in diameter, in which are fixed from the centre six or eight rakes, with long teeth six inches apart, which are kept perpetually revolving by a small steam-engine, or by a whim worked by horses or mules.

Water is kept flowing into the tub through one opening, as the diamondiferous soil is worked in through another. The revolution of the rakes causes a thorough disintegration of the stuff, the lighter portion of which is forced over the upper edge, carried away by the engine, and thrown on the refuse heap. After sixty or eighty loads have been passed through the machine, the rakes are lifted up and the contents of the box carefully taken out. It will be at once understood that only the heaviest portions of the precious soil, and therefore the diamonds, if there are any, have been left in the machine, the lighter parts having been washed over the upper edge of the box.

When taken out, the residue, which consists of nothing but heavy ironstone and carbon in a pure state and crystals of various hues, is carefully sifted through sieves of different degrees of fineness, sometimes placed one under the other in a cradle and thoroughly rocked. Then, when every trace of foreign matter has been carefully removed, a dextrous turn of the hand, as the sieve with its contents is held in a tub of water, brings the diamonds, garnets, and the heavier lumps of ironstone into a little heap in the very centre, so that when the sieve is reversed on the common pine sorting-table they lie together. The white, alum-like appearance of the rough diamond contrasts strongly with the rich-hued garnets, with which the surrounding blackness of carbon and ironstone is studded. It is only by practice that one is enabled to tell at sight what is a diamond; the sieve appeared to be full of them, but we were told they were only crystals, which could easily be detected from diamonds by taking one between the teeth; the diamond resists their action, but the crystal crumbles away. Thousands upon thousands of garnets roost exquisite in colour are found in every sieveful, but they are thrown aside contemptuously, being almost valueless.

We were allowed the fascinating pleasure of sorting over a sieveful of the pebbly-like residuum of the washing-box, and I can give no idea of the feeling of excitement that came over us as we pored over the table, each armed with a triangular piece of zinc for raking over the stones.

We found several diamonds, and felt like breaking the tenth commandment as they were calmly pocketed by the manager of the “floor,” but were each somewhat consoled by the present of a small diamond as a souvenir of the day’s wash-up.

No one would believe from the appearance of a rough diamond, looking like nothing so much as a piece of alum, that it could ever be cut into a beautiful, fiery gem.