Up the Mazaruni for Diamonds

by William La Varre

We selected a site that was a little back from the river, out of the dampness, on a high and dry sloping hillside. We made a little clearing, but with the forest all about three sides to protect us from high winds. Instead of driving foundation posts we cut the trees and used the stumps where possible. This slope left a sort of basement where we could store such things as rain might injure but insects could not.

OUR JUNGLE HOME

We did not trust to palms and reeds for roofing but brought tarred roofing paper with us. This was much better, storm-proof, and helped keep insects away as they are never fond of tar. Facing the river we had a wide veranda. Inside we made good but crude tables and chairs, a desk, and strong supports for our hammocks. The rear end was but a step from the ground, but the front end was some fifteen feet up. It made us a snug and comfortable home for the more than four months we were digging into the gravel of the river banks for “shiners.”

Meanwhile we got busy with our mining. Jimmy acted as our cook and personal servant. The captain was an expert in this river life, the Indians were chopping wood and bringing in game and fish, the blacks were busy now getting the mine started and later in digging, so that we were a very busy and quite contented colony.

Diamond mining on the Mazaruni is not unlike gold dust mining. The diamonds, like the gold, being the heaviest substance in the gravel, naturally settle down to the bottom when a sieve is twisted about so as to make the water move around and around. The centrifugal force sends the heavy material to the bottom.

We started in with pick and shovel. Later we built a “Long Tom,” which is a wooden trough through which water runs, there being several compartments and cleats. The gravel is put in at the upper end and carried down by the rush of water. The gravel, being lighter, is carried on down and off, the diamonds are mixed in with tin ore, pulsite and ordinary quartz, all of these being heavy.

Finally the residue, after the gravel is washed out, is put in a sieve and either “jigged” by hand or by means of wire supports, over a box of water.

The soil was made up of loose gravel and also of conglomerate, not quite solid, yet not loose like gravel, and much muscle with the picks was needed to loosen the stuff.

Once our sieves were ready we could scarcely wait to get busy. Gravel was shoveled into the first sieve and one of the blacks, an expert “jigger,” took it up and started the peculiar circular motion.