When men first found gold in the ground it was near the surface, and
was not very difficult to get. But when this had all been taken, they
had to dig deeper and deeper, until at last they found it easier to
cut out roads and rooms far down underneath the ground, and to look
for the gold among the earth and stones they found there. Perhaps you
wonder how the miners get so deep down in the earth every day. There
are no steps, but they get into a kind of cage called a "lift," which
slips down on a rope skip into a deep hole called a "shaft," to where
they want to work. It is a wonderful machine, something like a
motor-car, only it goes down into the earth instead of along the top.
When the men get out of the skip down in the mine, there are many
different roads in it, and each man has to go to his own part to work.
When he reaches his place he has to drill holes in the rock for the
dynamite which breaks up the rock, and the loose stones are taken away
along the roads to the lift and then up to the top. There it is
stamped with great hammers into dust, and washed, until the gold-dust
is separated from the rest. There are thousands of men, both
underground and at the top, always at work at the mines.
Down in the mines it is always dark because the sunlight cannot get
down there, and so the people have to use lanterns. In the larger
openings there are lamps fixed to the walls and ceilings lighted by
"electricity." Although it is dark below the ground, we must not
think it is cold. On the contrary, it is very hot and difficult to
breathe, because there is no wind, so that the bad air does not get
cleared away. It is hot and stuffy, like a house where people have
been sleeping all night with no windows open. When people first made
mines, a great many died because of the bad air and because of fires,
but now they have machines which blow good air down into the ground,
and electric and other lamps which do not set fire to things easily,
and so there are not many people killed in the mines now.
Nevertheless, it is very hard and tiring work, and men are often ill
because of the dust which fills the air they breathe. So the
Europeans to whom the mines belong pay for doctors and hospitals
where the sick can be cared for until they are well.
Many valuable minerals, besides gold, are found in South Africa, but
the chief mines are for gold, diamonds, and coal. Diamonds are
beautiful stones, clear like water, which flash red, blue, and green
when they are turned about. They are very hard, and are sometimes
used to cut glass. But they are valuable because European and Indian
ladies will pay large prices for them, as they like to wear them as
ornaments. Coal is a hard, black, shiny mineral used for burning. It
makes better fires than wood, and burns much longer. These
three--gold, diamonds, and coal--are the chief things found in mines
in South Africa. But in other countries men find iron and silver and
copper (of which pennies are made), and tin and salt, and many other
useful things, in mines dug deep under the ground.