_THE FIRST DIAMOND!_
Of course, once landed at the site of our diamond mine, we had to have
a comfortable, permanent home. A "logie" it is called here, doubtless
a corruption of the Italian "loggia" which has as its equivalent in
English the word "lodge." Strictly speaking, a logie is a building
that is partly open at the sides and consists of more veranda than
closed in room. Ours we had built so that it could be closed in, but
except in driving rains the sides were always open. We could screen
them to keep out mosquitoes and keep quite comfortable.
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.
[Illustration: 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.
"Lucky baby," he said. The men who do this work are called "jiggers"
and they call the sieves "baby."
We watched his every move. Around and around the sieve went. He
paused. We stretched our necks to see but he merely scooped off the
lighter top gravel that his circular motion had forced up, then
continued.
Over and over he repeated this, for about an hour, continually washing
it, the water dripping through the fine mesh of the sieve. Then it was
ready. With a final "swish" of the sieve and another washing, with the
last handful of gravel brushed off, the contents, just a few handfuls
of material, were dumped on a crude table and spread out with a sweep
of the hand.
"Here's one!"
It looked bright enough, but Lewis, who had been prospecting there and
had seen them mine diamonds, had learned the difference between the
dull sparkle of ordinary quartz and the brilliant sheen of diamonds;
he took up the particle, pressed it between two knife blades and
crushed it.
"Everything here except diamonds can be crushed by that sort of
pressure," he said.
"Here's one!" I picked it out. It would not crush.
"Yes. That's a diamond. About half a carat," said Lewis.
I have that tiny glittering pebble now and hope to always keep it. The
first diamond from our mine! We found a few more in that lot, none
very large, but all of them of value. None are too small, in fact, to
be of some value. We find them in various colors, pure white, which is
the average sort; brilliant blue white, the most valuable and rare;
pink or rose, also quite valuable; and yellow, not so valuable. Also a
few green and black. Most of the stones we get down there are too
small for jewelry, and are used in commerce. Drills are made of them
and machinery for boring, and for probably a hundred different uses in
manufacture.
[Illustration: AN INTERIOR VIEW OF OUR "LOGIE"]