CHAPTER V.

GOLD AND DIAMONDS.

GOLD.--How widely distributed--Alluvial Gold-mining--Vein

Gold-mining--Nuggets--Treatment of Ore and Gold in the

Transvaal--Story of South African Gold-fields--Gold-production

of the World--Johannesburg the Golden City--Coolgardie

Gold-fields--Bayley's discovery of Gold there.

DIAMONDS.--Composition--Diamond-cutting--Diamond-mining--Famous

Diamonds--Cecil J. Rhodes and the Kimberley Mines.

In the getting of gold--the metal--for the purpose of possessing

gold--as money--there has always been an element of excitement and

romance.

'How quickly nature falls into revolt when gold becomes her object!' as

Shakespeare says:

For gold the merchant ploughs the main,

The farmer ploughs the manor.

There is a vast difference between the way in which the precious metal

is now extracted and the primitive methods which were considered perfect

in the earlier part of the century. The miner of fifty years ago never

dreamt of machinery, costly and magnificent, capable of crushing

thousands of tons of quartz per week. He 'dollied,' or ground, his

little bits of rock by means of a contrivance resembling a pestle and

mortar, and it was only the very richest stone that repaid him for his

labour. In fact, there was very little crushing in those days, quartz

not being easily found sufficiently rich to make such work a paying

concern, and it was therefore alluvial gold which was chiefly sought

for. The gold-seeker having decided on the place where he was to make

his first venture, provided himself with a shovel and pick and started

for the 'diggings.' Gold-mining was then carried on all over California,

and he had his choice of many camps.

[Illustration: The Hand-cradle Method of extracting Gold.]

But what a wild and lawless place was California in those days! Here in

these gold-fields were gathered together thousands of the greatest

desperadoes that the earth could boast of, and thousands of needy, if

harmless, adventurers from every country in the world. Fortunately with

them were mixed thousands of honest hard-working men, of every condition

in life, from the peer to the peasant, men who had been doing well, or

fairly well, at their professions, or in their business offices at home,

but for whom the attractions of this El Dorado had proved too powerful.

Gold is perhaps the most widely and universally sought product of the

earth's crust. In the very earliest writings which have come down to us

gold is mentioned as an object of men's search, and as a commodity of

extreme value for purposes of adornment and as a medium of exchange. The

importance which it possessed in ancient times has certainly not

lessened in our day. Without the enormous supplies of gold produced at

about the time when the steam-engine was being brought into practical

use it is difficult to imagine how our commerce could have attained its

present proportions; and but for the rush of immigrants to the

gold-fields in the beginning of the second half of this century

Australia might have remained a mere convict settlement, California have

become but a granary and vineyard, and the Transvaal an asylum of the

Boers who were discontented with the Cape government.

On the score of geographical distribution, gold must be deemed a common

metal, as common as copper, lead, or silver, and far more common than

nickel, cobalt, platinum, and many others. Theorists have propounded

curious rules for the occurrence of gold on certain lines and belts,

which have no existence but in their own fancy. Scarcely a country but

has rewarded a systematic search for gold, though some are more richly

endowed than others, and discoveries are not always made with the same

facility. The old prejudices, which made men associate gold only with

certain localities hindered the development of a most promising

industry even within the British shores. Despite the abundant traces of

ancient Roman and other workings, the gold-mines of Wales were long

regarded as mythical; but recent extended exploitation has proved them

to be rich. This is notably the case in the Dolgelly district, where

considerable gold occurs, both in alluvial gravels and in well-formed

quartz veins traversing the Lower Silurian Lingula beds and the intruded

diabasic rocks called 'greenstone' in the Geological Survey. A

peculiarity of the veins is the common association of magnesian

minerals. The gold is about 20 or 21 carats fine, and often shows traces

of iron sesquioxide. So long ago as 1861 some L10,000 worth of gold per

annum was taken out of the Clogan mine by imperfect methods. Some

samples have afforded 40 to 60 ounces per ton--a most remarkable yield.

There are probably many veins still waiting discovery.

A calculation was made in 1881 that the total gold extracted from all

sources up to that date from the creation had been over 10,000 tons,

with a value of about 1500 millions sterling. California, to the end of

1888, was reckoned to have afforded over 200 million pounds' worth, and

this figure is exceeded by the Australian colony of Victoria.

The origin of gold-bearing mineral veins is inseparably connected with

that vexed question, the origin of mineral veins generally. By far the

most common matrix of vein-gold is quartz or silica, but it is not the

only one. To pass by the metals and metallic ores with which gold is

found, there are several other minerals which serve as an envelope for

the precious metal. Chief among them is lime. Some of the best mines of

New South Wales are in calcareous veins. Sundry gold-reefs in

Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Bohemia are full of calcite.

Dolomite occurs in Californian and Manitoban mines; and apatite,

aragonite, gypsum, selenite, and crystalline limestone have all proved

auriferous, while in some cases neighbouring quartz has been barren.

Felspar in Colorado and felsite magnesian slate in Newfoundland carry

gold.

NUGGETS.

[Illustration: Welcome Nugget.]

The physical conditions under which gold occurs are extremely variable.

Popularly speaking, the most familiar form is the 'nugget,' or shapeless

mass of appreciable size. These, however, constitute in the aggregate

but a small proportion of the gold yielded by any field, and were much

more common in the early days of placer-mining in California and

Australia than they are now. One of the largest ever found, the

'Welcome' nugget, discovered in 1858 at Bakery Hill, Ballarat, weighed

2217 ounces 16 dwt., and sold for L10,500, whilst not a few have

exceeded 1000 ounces. One found at Casson Hill, Calaveras county,

California, in 1854, weighed 180 pounds. The 'Water Moon' nugget, found

in Australia in 1852, weighed 223 pounds. The origin of these large

nuggets has been a subject for discussion. Like all placer or alluvial

gold, they have been in part at least derived from the auriferous veins

traversing the rocks whose disintegration furnished the material forming

the gravel beds in which the nuggets are found.

The famous nugget known as the 'Welcome Stranger' was discovered under

singular circumstances in the Dunolly district of Victoria, which is one

hundred and ten miles north-west of the capital, Melbourne, by two

Cornish miners named Deeson and Oates. Their career is remarkable, as

showing how fortune, after frowning for years, will suddenly smile on

the objects of her apparent aversion. These two Cornishmen emigrated

from England to Australia by the same vessel in 1854. They betook

themselves to the far-famed Sandhurst Gold-field in Victoria; they

worked together industriously for years, and yet only contrived to make

a bare livelihood by their exertions. Thinking that change of place

might possibly mean change of luck, they moved to the Dunolly

Gold-field, and their spirits were considerably raised by the discovery

of some small nuggets. But this was only a momentary gleam of sunshine,

for their former ill-luck pursued them again, and pursued them even more

relentlessly than before.

The time at last came, on the morning of Friday, February 5, 1869, when

the storekeeper with whom they were accustomed to deal refused to supply

them any longer with the necessaries of life until they liquidated the

debt they had already incurred. For the first time in their lives they

went hungry to work, and the spectacle of these two brave fellows

fighting on an empty stomach against continued ill-luck must have moved

the fickle goddess to pity and repentance. Gloomy and depressed as they

naturally were, they plied their picks with indomitable perseverance,

and while Deeson was breaking up the earth around the roots of a tree,

his pick suddenly and sharply rebounded by reason of its having struck

some very hard substance. 'Come and see what this is,' he called out to

his mate. To their astonishment, 'this' turned out to be the 'Welcome

Stranger' nugget; and thus two poverty-stricken Cornish miners became in

a moment the possessors of the largest mass of gold that mortal eyes

ever saw, or are likely to see again. Such a revolution of fortune is

probably unique in the annals of the human race. Almost bewildered by

the unexpected treasure they had found at their feet, Deeson and Oates

removed the superincumbent clay, and there revealed to their wondering

eyes was a lump of gold, a foot long and a foot broad, and so heavy that

their joint strength could scarcely move it. A dray having been

procured, the monster nugget was escorted by an admiring procession into

the town of Dunolly, and carried into the local branch of the London

Chartered Bank, where it was weighed, and found to contain 2268-1/2

ounces of gold. The Bank purchased the nugget for L9534, which the

erstwhile so unlucky, but now so fortunate, pair of Cornish miners

divided equally between them. Whether the storekeeper who refused them

the materials for a breakfast that morning apologised for his harsh

behaviour, history relates not, but the probability is that he was paid

the precise amount of his debt and no more; whereas, had he acted in a

more generous spirit towards two brothers in distress, he might have

come in for a handsome present out of the proceeds of the 'Welcome

Stranger.'

The 'Welcome' nugget above mentioned, found at Bakery Hill, Ballarat, in

Victoria, on June 15, 1858, was nearly as large as the one just

described, its weight being 2217 ounces 16 dwts. It was found at a depth

of one hundred and eighty feet in a claim belonging to a party of

twenty-four men, who disposed of it for L10,500. A smaller nugget,

weighing 571 ounces, was found in close proximity to it. After being

exhibited in Melbourne, the 'Welcome' nugget was brought to London and

smelted in November 1859. The assay showed that it contained 99.20 per

cent. of gold.

Another valuable nugget, which was brought to London and exhibited at

the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, was the 'Blanche Barkly,' found by a party

of four diggers on August 27, 1857, at Kingower, Victoria, just thirteen

feet beneath the surface. It was twenty-eight inches long, ten inches

broad in its widest part, and weighed 1743 ounces 13 dwts. It realised

L6905, 12s. 6d. A peculiarity about this nugget was the manner in which

it had eluded the efforts of previous parties to capture it. Three years

before its discovery, a number of miners, judging the place to be a

'likely' locality, had sunk holes within a few feet of the spot where

this golden mass was reposing, and yet they were not lucky enough to

strike it. What a tantalising thought it must have been in after-years,

when they reflected on the fact that they were once within an arm's

length of L7000 without being fortunate enough to grasp the golden

treasure! Kingower, like Dunolly, from which it is only a few miles

distant, is a locality famous for its nuggets. One weighing 230 ounces

was actually found on the surface covered with green moss; and pieces of

gold have frequently been picked up there after heavy rains, the water

washing away the thin coating of earth that had previously concealed

them. Two men working in the Kingower district in 1860 found a very fine

nugget, weighing 805 ounces, within a foot of the surface; and one of

715 ounces was unearthed at Daisy Hill at a depth of only three and a

half feet.

A notable instance of rapid fortune was that of a party of four, who,

having been but a few months in the colony of Victoria, were lucky

enough to alight on a nugget weighing 1615 ounces. They immediately

returned to England with their prize and sold it for L5532, 7s. 4d. The

place where they thus quickly made their 'pile,' to use an expressive

colonialism, was Canadian Gully, at Ballarat, a very prolific

nugget-ground. There was also found the 'Lady Hotham' nugget, called

after the wife of Sir Charles Hotham, one of the early governors of

Victoria. It was discovered on September 8, 1854, at a depth of 135

feet. Its weight was 1177 ounces; and near it were found a number of

smaller nuggets of the aggregate weight of 2600 ounces, so that the

total value of the gold extracted from this one claim was no less than

L13,000. As showing the phenomenal richness of this locality, it may be

added that on January 20, 1853, a party of three brought to the surface

a solid mass of gold weighing 1117 ounces; and two days afterwards, in

the same tunnel, a splendid pyramidal-shaped nugget weighing 1011 ounces

was discovered; the conjoint value of the two being L7500.

A case somewhat similar to one already described was that of the 'Heron'

nugget, a solid mass of gold to the amount of 1008 ounces, which was

found at Fryer's Creek, Victoria, by two young men who had only been

three months in the colony. They were offered L4000 for it in Victoria;

but they preferred to bring it to England as a trophy, and there they

sold it for L4080.

The 'Victoria' nugget, as its name suggests, was purchased by the

Victorian government for presentation to Her Majesty. It was a very

pretty specimen of 340 ounces, worth L1650, and was discovered at White

Horse Gully, Sandhurst. Quite close to it, and within a foot of the

surface, was found the 'Dascombe' nugget, weighing 330 ounces, which was

also brought to London, and sold for L1500.

Just as a book should never be judged by its cover, so mineral

substances should not be estimated by superficial indications. A

neglect of this salutary precept was once very nearly resulting in the

loss of a valuable Victorian nugget. A big lump of quartz was brought to

the surface, and, as its exterior aspect presented only slight

indications of the existence of gold, it was at first believed to be

valueless; but as soon as the mass was broken up, there, embedded in the

quartz, was a beautiful nugget of an oval shape.

New South Wales, the parent colony of the Australian group, has produced

a considerable quantity of gold, but not many notable nuggets. Its most

famous nugget was discovered by a native boy in June 1851 at Meroo

Creek, near the present town of Bathurst. This black boy was in the

employ of Dr Kerr as a shepherd, and one day, whilst minding his sheep,

he casually came across three detached pieces of quartz. He tried to

turn over the largest of the pieces with his stick; but he was

astonished to find that the lump was much heavier than the ordinary

quartz with which he was familiar. Bending down and looking closer, he

saw a shining yellow mass lying near; and when he at last succeeded in

lifting up the piece of quartz, his eyes expanded on observing that the

whole of its under surface was of the same shining complexion. He

probably did not realise the full value of his discovery; but he had

sufficient sense to break off a few specimens and hasten to show them to

his master. Dr Kerr set off at once to verify the discovery; and when he

arrived at the spot, his most sanguine anticipations were fulfilled by

the event. He found himself the possessor of 1272 ounces of gold; and he

rewarded the author of his wealth, the little black boy, with a flock of

sheep and as much land as was needed for their pasture.

METHODS OF MINING.

The more common form of alluvial gold is as grains, or scales, or dust,

varying in size from that of ordinary gunpowder to a minuteness that is

invisible to the naked eye. Sometimes indeed the particles are so small

that they are known as 'paint' gold, forming a scarcely perceptible

coating on fragments of rock. When the gold is very fine or in very thin

scales, much of it is lost in the ordinary processes for treating

gravels, by reason of the fact that it will actually float on water for

a considerable distance.

From what has been already said it will be evident that gold-mining must

be an industry presenting several distinct phases. These may be classed

as alluvial mining, vein-mining, and the treatment of auriferous ores.

In alluvial mining natural agencies, such as frost, rain, &c., have, in

the course of centuries, performed the arduous tasks of breaking up the

matrix which held the gold, and washing away much of the valueless

material, leaving the gold concentrated into a limited area by virtue of

its great specific gravity. Hence it is never safe to assume that the

portion of the veins remaining as such will yield anything like so great

an equivalent of gold as the alluvials formed from the portion which has

been disintegrated. As water has been the chief (but not the only) agent

in distributing the gold and gravel constituting alluvial diggings or

placers, the banks and beds of running streams in the neighbourhood of

auriferous veins are likely spots for the prospector, who finds in the

flowing water of the stream the means of separating the heavy grains of

gold from the much lighter particles of rock, sand, and mud. Often the

brook is made to yield the gold it transports by the simple expedient of

placing in it obstacles which will arrest the gold without obstructing

the lighter matters. Jason's golden fleece was probably a sheepskin

which had been pegged down in the current of the Phasis till a quantity

of gold grains had become entangled among the wool. To this day the same

practice is followed with ox-hides in Brazil, and with sheepskins in

Ladakh, Savoy, and Hungary. This may be deemed the simplest form of

'alluvial mining.' If the gold deposited in holes and behind bars in the

bed of the stream is to be recovered, greater preparations are needed.

Either the river-bed must be dredged by floating dredgers, worked by the

stream or otherwise; or the gravel must be dug out for washing while the

bed is left dry in hot weather; or the river must be diverted into

another channel (natural or artificial) whilst its bed is being

stripped. The first-named method is best adapted to large volumes of

water, but probably is least productive of gold, passing over much that

is buried in crevices in the solid bed-rock. The second plan is

applicable only to small streams, and entails much labour. The third is

most efficient, but very liable to serious interference by floods, which

entail a heavy loss of plant.

In searching for placers it is necessary to bear in mind that the

watercourses of the country have not always flowed in the channels they

now occupy. During the long periods of geological time many and vast

changes have taken place in the contour of the earth's surface. Hence it

is not an uncommon circumstance to find beds of auriferous gravel

occupying the summits of hills, which must, at the time the deposit was

made, have represented the course of a stream. In the same way the

remains of riverine accumulations are found forming 'terraces' or

'benches' on the flanks of hills. Lacustrine beds may similarly occur at

altitudes far above the reach of any existing stream, having been the

work of rivers long since passed away.

Another form of alluvial digging occurs in Western America and New

Zealand, where the sea washes up auriferous sands. These are known as

'ocean placers' or 'beach diggings,' and are of minor importance.

Whilst most placers have been formed by flowing water, some owe their

origin to the action of ice, and are really glacial moraines. Others are

attributed to the effects of repeated frost and thaw in decomposing the

rocks and causing rearrangement of the component parts. Yet another

class of deposits is supposed to have been accumulated by an outpouring

of volcanic mud. And, finally, experts declare that some of the rich

_banket_ beds of the Transvaal became auriferous by the infiltration of

water containing a minute proportion of gold in solution.

In all cases the recovery of alluvial gold is in principle remarkably

simple. It depends on the fact that the gold is about seven times as

heavy, bulk for bulk, as the material forming the mass of the deposit.

The medium for effecting the separation is water in motion. The

apparatus in which it is applied may be a 'pan,' a 'cradle,' or a 'tom,'

for operations on a very small scale, or a 'sluice,' which may be a

paved ditch or a wooden 'flume' of great length, for large operations.

The method is the same in all: flowing water removes the earthy matters,

while obstructions of various kinds arrest the metal. As a rule, it is

more advantageous to conduct the water to the material than to carry the

material to water. In many cases a stream of water, conveyed by means of

pipes, and acting under the influence of considerable pressure, is

utilised for removing as well as washing the deposit. This method is

known as 'piping' or 'hydraulicing' in America, where it has been

chiefly developed, but is now forbidden in many localities, because the

enormous masses of earth washed through the sluices have silted up

rivers and harbours, and caused immense loss to the agricultural

interest by burying the rich riverside lands under a deposit that will

be sterile for many years to come. The plan permits of very economical

working in large quantities, but is extremely wasteful of gold. The

water-supply is of paramount importance, and has led to the construction

of reservoirs and conduits, at very heavy cost, which in many places

will have a permanent value long after gold-sluicing has ceased. These

large water-supply works are often in the hands of distinct parties from

the miners, the latter purchasing the water they use. To give an example

of the results attained in alluvial mining, it may be mentioned that in

a three-months' working in one Victorian district in 1888, over 33,500

tons of wash-dirt were treated for an average yield of 18-1/2 grains of

gold per ton, or, say, one part in 700,000. Where water cannot be

obtained recourse is had to a fanning or winnowing process for

separating the gold from the sand, which, however, is less efficacious.

[Illustration: Hydraulic Gold-mining.]

Vein-mining for gold differs but little from working any other kind of

metalliferous lode. When the vein-stuff has been raised it is reduced to

a pulverulent condition, to liberate the gold from the gangue. In some

cases roasting is first resorted to. This causes friability, and

facilitates the subsequent comminution. When the gold is in a very fine

state, too, it helps it to agglomerate. But if any pyrites are present

the effect is most detrimental, the gold becoming coated with a film of

sulphur or a glazing of iron oxide. The powdering of the vein-stuff is

usually performed in stamp batteries, which consist of a number of

falling hammers. While simple in principle, the apparatus is complicated

in its working parts, and is probably destined to give way to the

improved forms of crushing-rolls and centrifugal roller mills, which are

less costly, simpler, more efficient, and do not flatten the gold

particles so much. One of the most effective is that by Jordan. When the

vein-stuff has been reduced to powder, it is akin to alluvial wash-dirt,

and demands the same or similar contrivances for arresting the liberated

gold and releasing the tailings--that is, mercury troughs, amalgamated

plates, blanket strakes, &c.; but, in addition, provision is made for

catching the other metalliferous constituents, such as pyrites, which

almost always carry a valuable percentage of gold. These pyrites or

'sulphurets' are cleansed by concentration in various kinds of

apparatus, all depending on the greater specific gravity of the portion

sought to be saved.

Of the metals and minerals with which gold is found intimately

associated in nature are the following: Antimony, arsenic, bismuth,

cobalt, copper, iridium, iron, lead, manganese, nickel, osmium,

palladium, platinum, selenium, silver, tellurium, tungsten, vanadium,

and zinc, often as an alloy in the case of palladium, platinum,

selenium, silver (always), and tellurium. The methods of separation vary

with the nature of the ore and the conditions of the locality.

TREATMENT OF ORE AND GOLD IN THE TRANSVAAL.

The method of treatment of ore and gold in the Transvaal, the most

perfect and effective known at the present time, has thus been described

by Arthur Stenhouse:

The rock when hoisted out of the mine is first assorted, the waste rock

being thrown on one side and the gold-bearing ore broken into lumps by a

stone-breaker. The lumps of ore now pass by gravitation and feeders

through a battery (or stamp mill), each stamp of which weighs about 1150

pounds, every stamp being lifted and dropped separately by the cam shaft

at a speed of about 95 drops a minute. A stream of water is introduced,

the ore is crushed into fine sand, and is carried by the water over a

series of inclined copper plates, which are coated with quicksilver. The

free gold in the sand at once amalgamates with the quicksilver on the

plates, and the sand-laden stream continues on its course.

The sand, having now passed over the plates, is carried by launders on

to the concentrators, or frue vanners. These concentrators separate and

retain the heavy sand (or concentrates), whilst the lighter sand is

carried by gravitation through a trough (or launder) to the cyanide

vats.

The stream of water carrying the lighter sand empties itself into the

cyanide vats, and as each successive vat is filled up, the water is

allowed to drain through the sand. A solution of cyanide of potassium is

then pumped up and evenly distributed (by distributors) over the sand,

and dissolves the gold in its progress, leaving pure sand alone in the

vat. The gold-containing liquid (or solution) having left the vat, is

led into a series of boxes filled with zinc shavings, the gold separates

from the liquid, and settles on the zinc shavings in the shape of a

small black powder. The cyanide solution now freed from the gold runs

into the solution vats, and is restrengthened and ready for further use.

_Gold Recovery._--In the mill or battery the copper plates are scraped

daily, and the amalgams (that is, quicksilver and gold) are weighed and

placed in the safe in charge of the battery manager. This amalgam is

generally retorted once a week, that is to say, the quicksilver is

evaporated (but not lost) and the gold is left in the retort. This

retorted gold is then smelted into bars.

The concentrates recovered by the frue vanners are generally treated by

chlorination (roasted). This process is gone through so that the iron

can be separated from the gold. Concentrates are sometimes treated by

cyanide, but the process, if cheaper, is slow and less effective.

Chlorinated gold is also smelted into bars.

_Cyanide._--The gold from the zinc shavings is recovered by retorting.

It is afterwards melted into bars and called 'cyanide gold.'

Slimes (or float gold) are generally conserved in a dam, and when the

quantity is sufficient they are treated by chlorination, or by a

solution of cyanide of potassium.

After treatment all sand is still retained, and is really a small

unbooked asset of the various gold-mining companies. The Rand

undoubtedly is the best field to-day for students who wish to acquire

the details of gold recovery. In no other country has science produced

such excellent results. At least 95 per cent. of the gold in the ore can

now be recovered, and scientific men from all countries are resident on

the fields, and advantageous discoveries in the treatment of various

ores are of almost daily occurrence.

STORY OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOLD-FIELDS.

There is material for the philosopher in the fact of gold-finding having

occurred in connection with a part of the world to which King Solomon

the Wise sent for supplies of gold and 'almug-trees,' for the mysterious

Ophir has been located in Mashonaland, and the Queen of Sheba identified

with the Sabia districts, which, though not in 'the Randt,' are

curiously connected with the rise and progress of the mania.

Let us briefly trace that romantic history, merely mentioning by the way

that, even in European history, African gold is no novelty, for the

Portuguese brought back gold-dust (and negro slaves) from Cape Bojador

four hundred and fifty years ago. The ruins of Mashonaland were

discovered in 1864 by Karl Mauch, who also discovered the gold-field of

Tate on the Zambesi, of which Livingstone had reported that the natives

got gold there by washing, being too lazy to dig for it. When Karl Mauch

came back to civilisation, people laughed at his stories of ruined

cities in the centre of Africa as travellers' fables, but a number of

Australian gold-diggers thought his report of the Tate gold-field good

enough to follow up. So about 1867, a band of them went out and set up a

small battery on the Tate River for crushing the quartz. This may be

called the first serious attempt at gold-mining in South Africa since

the days of the lost races who built the cities whose ruins Karl Mauch

discovered and which Mr Theodore Bent has described. A Natal company

assisted the Tate diggers with supplies, and enough gold was found to

justify the floating of the Limpopo Mining Company in London. This was

in 1868, and was practically the foundation of the 'Kaffir Circus,'

though its founders knew it not. Sir John Swinburne was the moving

spirit of this enterprise, and went out with a lot of expensive

machinery, only to meet with a good deal of disappointment. The diamond

discoveries in Griqualand soon drew away the gold-seekers, who found the

working expenses too heavy to leave gold-mining profitable, and for a

time the Tate fields were deserted. They were taken up again, however,

twenty years later by a Kimberley enterprise, out of which developed the

Tate Concession and Exploration Company, to whom the unfortunate

potentate Lobengula granted a mining concession over no less than eight

hundred thousand square miles of Matabeleland.

Just as the Australians were breaking ground on the Tate, Thomas Baines,

the traveller, was making up his mind to test the truth of tales of gold

in the far interior, which the Portuguese from Da Gama onwards had

received from natives. In 1869 he set forth from Natal with a small

expedition, and in 1870 received from Lobengula permission to dig for

gold anywhere between the rivers Gwailo and Ganyona. Some seventeen

years later this same concession was repeated to Mr Rudd, and became the

basis from which sprang the great Chartered Company of British South

Africa.

In the course of his journey, Baines encamped on the site of the present

city of Johannesburg, without having the least idea of the wealth

beneath him, and intent only upon that he hoped to find farther inland.

On the map which he prepared of this journey is marked the 'farm of H.

Hartley, pioneer of the gold-fields,' in the Witwatersrandt district.

Hartley was known to the Boers as 'Oude Baas,' and was a famous

elephant-hunter, but as ignorant as Baines himself that he was dwelling

on the top of a gold-reef. And it was not in the Witwatersrandt,

foremost as it now is, that the African gold boom began.

While the Tate diggers were pursuing their work and Baines his

explorations, a Natalian named Button went, with an experienced

Californian miner named Sutherland, to prospect for gold in the

north-east of the Transvaal. They found it near Lydenburg, and companies

were rapidly formed in Natal to work it. Such big nuggets were sent down

that men hurried up, until soon there were some fifteen hundred actively

at work on the Lydenburg field. The operations were fairly profitable,

but the outbreak of the Zulu war, and then the Boer war, put an end to

them for some years.

And now we come to one of the most romantic chapters in the golden

history of South Africa, a history which was marked by hard and

disheartening days what time the lucky diamond-seekers at Kimberley were

swilling champagne, as if it were water, out of pewter beer-pots. There

is more attraction for adventurers, however, in gold-seeking than in

diamond-mining, for gold can be valued and realised at once, whereas

diamonds may not be diamonds after all, and may be spoilt, lost, or

stolen, before they can find a purchaser.

It is to be noted that much as the Transvaal Republic has benefited from

gold-mining, the Boers were at first much averse to it, and threw all

the obstacles they could in the way of the miners. And it was this

attitude of the Boers, especially towards the Lydenburg pioneers, that

led to the next development.

One of the tributaries of the Crocodile River (which flows into Delagoa

Bay) is the Kaap River, called also the River of the Little Crocodile,

which waters a wide deep valley into which projects the spur of a hill

which the Dutch pioneers called De Kaap (the cape). Beyond this

cape-like spur the hills rise to a height of three thousand feet, and

carry a wide plateau covered with innumerable boulders of fantastic

shape--the Duivel's Kantoor. The mists gather in the valley and dash

themselves against De Kaap like surf upon a headland; and the face of

the hills is broken with caves and galleries as if by the action of the

sea, but really by the action of the weather. Upon the high-lying

plateau of the Duivel's Kantoor were a number of farms, the chief of

which was held by one G. P. Moodie.

One day a Natal trader named Tom M'Laughlin had occasion to cross this

plateau in the course of a long trek, and he picked up with curiosity

some of the bits of quartz he passed, or kicked aside, on the way. On

reaching Natal he showed these to an old Australian miner, who instantly

started up-country and found more. The place was rich in gold, and

machinery was as quickly as possible got up from Natal, on to Moodie's

farm. On this farm was found the famous Pioneer Reef, and Moodie, who at

one time would gladly have parted with his farm for a few hundreds, sold

his holding to a Natal company for something like a quarter of a

million. Then there was a rush of diggers and prospectors back from the

Lydenburg district, and the De Kaap 'boom' set in. The beginning was in

1883, and two years later the whole Kaap valley and Kantoor plateau was

declared a public gold-field. Two brothers called Barber came up and

formed the centre of a settlement, now the town of Barberton. Every new

reef sighted or vein discovered was the signal for launching a new

company--not now in Natal only, but also in London, to which the

gold-fever began to spread (but was checked again by the De Kaap

reverses).

Some fifteen Natalians formed a syndicate to 'exploit' this country

on their own account. Some were storekeepers in the colony, some

wagon-traders, and some merely waiters on fortune. Only eleven of them

had any money, and they supplied the wherewithal for the other four, who

were sent up to prospect and dig. After six months of fruitless toil,

the money was all done, and word was sent to the four that no more aid

could be sent to them. They were 'down on their luck,' when as they

returned to camp on what was intended to be their last evening there,

one Edwin Bray savagely dug his pick into the rock as they walked

gloomily along. But with one swing which he made came a turn in the

fortunes of the band, and of the land, for he knocked off a bit of

quartz so richly veined with gold as to betoken the existence of

something superexcellent in the way of a 'reef.' All now turned on the

rock with passionate eagerness, and in a very short time pegged out what

was destined to be known as 'Bray's Golden Hole.'

But the syndicate were by this time pretty well cleaned out, and capital

was needed to work the reef, and provide machinery, &c. So a small

company was formed in Natal under the name of the Sheba Reef Gold-mining

Company, divided into 15,000 shares of L1 each, the capital of L15,000

being equitably allotted among the fifteen members of the syndicate.

Upon these shares they raised enough money on loan to pay for the

crushing of 200 tons of quartz, which yielded eight ounces of gold to

the ton, and at once provided them with working capital. Within a very

few months the mine yielded 10,000 ounces of gold, and the original

shares of L1 each ran up by leaps and bounds until they were eagerly

competed for at L100 each. Within a year, the small share-capital

(L15,000) of the original syndicate was worth in the market a million

and a half sterling. This wonderful success led to the floating of a

vast number of hopeless or bogus enterprises, and worthless properties

were landed on the shoulders of the British public at fabulous prices.

Yet, surrounded as it was by a crowd of fraudulent imitators, the great

Sheba Mine has continued as one of the most wonderfully productive mines

in South Africa. Millions have been lost in swindling and impossible

undertakings in De Kaap, but the Sheba Mountain, in which was Bray's

Golden Hole, has really proved a mountain of gold.

The De Kaap gold-field had sunk again under a cloud of suspicion, by

reason of the company-swindling and share-gambling which followed upon

the Sheba success, when another startling incident gave a fresh impetus

to the golden madness.

Among the settlers in the Transvaal in the later seventies were two

brothers called Struben, who had had some experience, though not much

success, with the gold-seekers at Lydenburg, and who took up in 1884 the

farm of Sterkfontein in the Witwatersrandt district. While attending to

the farm they kept their eyes open for gold, and one day one of the

brothers came upon gold-bearing conglomerates, which they followed up

until they struck the famous 'Confidence Reef.' This remarkable reef at

one time yielded as much as a thousand ounces of gold and silver to the

ton of ore, and then suddenly gave out, being in reality not a 'reef'

but a 'shoot.' There were other prospectors in the district, but none

had struck it so rich as the Strubens, who purchased the adjacent farm

to their own, and set up a battery to crush quartz, both for themselves

and for the other gold-hunters. The farms were worth little in those

days, being only suitable for grazing; but when prospectors and company

promoters began to appear, first by units, then by tens, and then by

hundreds, the Boers put up their prices, and speedily realised for

their holdings ten and twenty times what they would have thought

fabulous a year or two previously. And it was on one of these farms that

the city of Johannesburg was destined to arise as if under a magician's

wand, from a collection of huts, in eight years, to a city covering an

area three miles by one and a half, with suburbs stretching many miles

beyond, with handsome streets and luxurious houses, in the very heart of

the desert.

[Illustration: Prospecting for Gold.]

It was one Sunday evening in 1886 that the great 'find' was made which

laid the base of the prosperity of the Johannesburg-to-be. A

farm-servant of the brothers Struben went over to visit a friend at a

neighbouring farm, and as he trekked homeward in the evening, knocked

off a bit of rock, the appearance of which led him to take it home to

his employer. It corresponded with what Struben had himself found in

another part, and following up both leads, revealed what became famous

as the Main Reef, which was traced for miles east and west.

A lot of the 'conglomerate' was sent on to Kimberley to be analysed, and

a thoughtful observer of the analysis there came to the conclusion that

there must be more good stuff where that came from. So he mounted his

horse and rode over to Barberton, where he caught a 'coach' which

dropped him on the Rand, as it is now called. There he quietly acquired

the Langlaagte farm for a few thousands, which the people on the spot

thought was sheer madness on his part. But his name was J. B. Robinson,

and he is now known in the 'Kaffir Circus' and elsewhere as one of the

'Gold Kings' of Africa. He gradually purchased other farms, and in a

year or two floated the well-known Langlaagte Company with a capital of

L450,000, to acquire what had cost him in all about L20,000. In five

years this company turned out gold to the value of a million, and paid

dividends to the amount of L330,000. The Robinson Company, formed a

little later to acquire and work some other lots, in five years produced

gold to the value of one and a half million, and paid to its

shareholders some L570,000 in dividends. With these discoveries and

successful enterprises the name and fame of 'the Rand' were established,

and for years the district became the happy hunting-ground of the

financiers and company promoters. The Rand, or Witwatersrandt, is the

topmost plateau of the High Veldt of the Transvaal, at the watershed of

the Limpopo and the Vaal; and on the summit of the plateau is the

gold-city of Johannesburg, some five thousand seven hundred feet above

the sea.

Soon the principal feature in Johannesburg was the Stock Exchange, and

the main occupation of the inhabitants was the buying and selling of

shares in mining companies, many of them bogus, at fabulous prices. The

inevitable reaction came, until once resplendent 'brokers' could hardly

raise the price of a 'drink;' though, to be sure, drinks and everything

else cost a small fortune. To-day the city is the centre of a great

mining industry, and the roar of the 'stamps' is heard all round it,

night and day. From a haunt of gamblers and 'wild-catters,' it has grown

into a comparatively sedate town of industry, commerce, and finance, and

the gold-fever which maddened its populace has been transferred (not

wholly, perhaps) to London and Paris.

The Stock Exchange of Johannesburg sprang into existence in 1887, and

before the end of that year some sixty-eight mining companies were on

its list, with an aggregate nominal capital of L3,000,000. During the

1895 'boom' in the market for mining shares in London and Paris, the

market value of the shares of the group of South African companies was

in the aggregate over L300,000,000! It is true that these are not all

gold-mining shares, but the great majority are of companies either for

or in connection with gold-mining. In 1887 the Transvaal produced only

about 25,000 ounces of gold; in 1894 the output was 2,024,159 ounces; in

1895 it was 2,277,633 ounces.

Just before the Californian discoveries--namely, in 1849, the world's

annual output of gold was only about L6,000,000. Then came the American

and Australian booms, raising the quantity produced in 1853 to the value

of L30,000,000. After 1853 there was a gradual decline to less than

L20,000,000 in 1883. This was the lowest period, and then the De Kaap

and other discoveries in Africa began to raise the total slowly again.

Between 1883 and 1887 the El Callao mine in South America and the Mount

Morgan in Australia helped greatly to enlarge the output, and then in

1807 the 'Randt' began to yield of its riches. The following are the

estimates of a mining-expert of the world's gold production during 1890,

L23,700,000; 1891, L26,130,000; 1892, L29,260,000; 1893, L31,110,000;

1894, L36,000,000; 1895, L40,000,000.

As to the future of the South African sources of supply, it is estimated

by Messrs Hatch and Chalmers, mining engineers, who have published an

exhaustive work on the subject, that before the end of the present

century the Witwatersrandt mines alone will be yielding gold to the

value of L20,000,000 annually; that early next century they will turn

out L26,000,000 annually; and that the known resources of the district

are equal to a total production within the next half century of

L700,000,000, of which, probably, L200,000,000 will be clear profit over

the cost of mining.

These estimates are considered excessive by some authorities;

nevertheless it is to be remembered that the productivity of deep level

mining has not yet been properly tested, that even the Transvaal itself

has not yet been thoroughly exploited, and that there is every reason

to believe that Matabeleland and Mashonaland are also rich in gold. But

we have not to look to Africa alone. In Australia, besides the regular

sources of supply which are being industriously developed, new deposits

are being opened up in Western Australia at such a rate that some people

predict that the 'Cinderella of the Colonies' will soon become the

richest, or one of the richest, members of the family.

The following shows the contributions towards the world's gold supply on

the basis of 1894:

United States L7,950,000

Australasia 8,352,000

South Africa 8,054,000

British Columbia and South America 2,000,000

Russia 4,827,000

Other Countries 4,807,000

-----------

L35,990,000

JOHANNESBURG--THE GOLDEN.

The railway journey from Capetown to Johannesburg of about three days is

through a seemingly endless sandy country, with range succeeding range

of distant mountains, all alike, and strikes a greater sense of vastness

and desolation than an expanse of naked ocean itself. First and second

class have sleeping accommodation, the third being kept for blacks and

the lowest class Dutch. Well, we reach Johannesburg, which has not even

yet, with all its wealth, a covered-in railway station; whilst by way of

contrast in the progress of the place, just across the road is a huge

club, with tennis, cricket, football, and cycling grounds, gymnasium,

military band, halls for dancing, operas, and oratorios, &c., which will

bear comparison with any you please. Its members are millionaires and

clerks, lodgers and their lodging-house keepers, all equal there; for

we have left behind caste, cliques, and cathedral cities, and are

cosmopolitan, or, in a word, colonial. An institution like this gives us

the state of society there in a nutshell, for, as wages are very high,

any one in anything like lucrative employment can belong to it; and the

grades in society are determined by money, and money only.

Johannesburg, the London of South Africa, which was a barren veldt

previous to 1886, is now the centre of some one hundred thousand

inhabitants, and increasing about as fast as bricks and mortar can be

obtained. It is situated directly on top of the gold, and on looking

down from the high ground above, it looks to an English eye like a huge,

long-drawn-out mass of tin sheds, with its painted iron mine-chimneys

running in a straight line all along the quartz gold-reef as far as you

can see in either direction. The largest or main reef runs for thirty

miles uninterruptedly, gold-bearing and honeycombed with mines

throughout. This, even were it alone, could speak for the stability and

continued prosperity of the Transvaal gold trade. In a mail-steamer

arriving from the Cape there is sometimes as much as between L300,000

and L400,000 worth of gold, and the newspapers show that usually about

L100,000 worth is consigned by each mail-boat.

As we enter the town we find fine and well-planned streets, crossed at

places with deep gutters--gullies rather--to carry off the water, which

is often in the heavy summer rains deeper than your knees. Crossing

these at fast trot, the driver never drawing rein, the novice is shot

about, in his white-covered two-wheeled cab with its large springs, like

a pea in a bladder. Indeed, one marvels at the daintily dressed

_habitue_ of the place being swung through similarly, quite unconcerned,

and without rumpling a frill. We pass fine public buildings, very high

houses and shops--somewhat jerry-built, it is true--but now being added

to, or replaced by larger and more solid buildings. Indeed, bricks

cannot be made fast enough for the demand, both there and in some of the

outlying Transvaal towns where the 'gold boom' is on. There are lofty

and handsome shops, with most costly contents, which can vie with London

or Paris.

Let us watch from the high-raised stoep outside the Post-office, looking

down over the huge market-square. What strikes us first are the

two-wheeled two-horse cabs with white hoods, recklessly driven by Malays

in the inseparable red fez, and these with the fast-trotting mule or

horse wagons show the pace at which business or pleasure is followed. As

a contrast comes the lumbering ox-wagon with ten or twelve span of oxen,

a little Kaffir boy dragging and directing the leading couple by a thong

round the horns, and the unamiable Dutch farmer revolving around,

swearing, and using his fifteen-foot whip to keep the concern in motion

at all. Then passes a body of some two hundred prisoners, Kaffirs, and a

few whites leading, marched in fours by some dozen white-helmeted police

and four or five mounted men, all paraded through the main streets,

innocent and guilty alike, to the court-house, and many escaping _en

route_ as occasion offers. Well-dressed English men of business, and

professional men, women in handsome and dainty costumes, hustle Jews of

all degrees of wealth; carelessly dressed miners, and chaps in rags come

in from prospecting or up-country, with the Dutchman everywhere in his

greasy soft felt and blue tattered puggaree, Chinese shopkeepers,

Italians, Poles, Germans; whilst outside in the roadways flows a

continual stream of Kaffirs in hats and cast-off clothing of every sort

imagination can picture, who are not allowed by law to walk upon the

pavement.

GOLD-FIELDS OF COOLGARDIE.

It was at one time generally believed that the unexplored regions of the

vast Eastern Division of Western Australia consisted merely of sandy

desert or arid plains, producing at most scrub and spinifex or 'poison

plants.' In recent years, however, a faith that the interior would prove

rich in various mineral resources began to dawn, and rose in proportion

as each report of a new 'find' was made to the government. But only a

few ventured to cherish a hope that tracts of fertile country were lying

beyond their ken, awaiting the advent of the explorer whose verdict upon

the nature of the soil, or possibilities of obtaining water, would

result in settlement, and prosperity, and civilisation.

By the opening up of the country surrounding Coolgardie--situated at a

distance of three hundred and sixty-eight miles inland from Fremantle,

the port of Perth--it has been proved that not only thousands of square

miles of auriferous country are contained in these once despised 'back

blocks,' but also large areas of rich pasturage and forest-lands.

At Coolgardie the country is undulating; and in the distance Mount

Burgess makes a bold and striking feature in the landscape, isolated

from the neighbouring low hills. A few miles to the south lies the

vigorous little town, surrounded by a halo of tents. It is situated

thirty-one degrees south, one hundred and twenty-one degrees east; the

climate is therefore temperate, though very hot during the dry season.

It has been judiciously laid out, and promises to be one of the

prettiest inland towns in the colony. In the principal street all is

bustle and activity: teams arriving from Southern Cross; camels

unloading or being driven out by picturesque Afghans; diggers and

prospectors setting out for distant 'rushes;' black piccaninnies

rolling in the dust, or playing with their faithful kangaroo dogs--their

dusky parents lolling near with characteristic indolence--and men of

every nation and colour under heaven combine to give the scene a

character all its own. In March 1896 Coolgardie was connected by rail

with Perth.

There are good stores, numerous thriving hotels; and a hospital has

lately been started in charge of two trained nurses. The spiritual needs

of the population are supplied by Wesleyan services and Salvation Army

meetings, and other agencies. As yet the public buildings are not

architecturally imposing; the principal one is a galvanised-iron shed

which does duty for a post-office. When the mail arrives, the two

officials, with the aid of an obliging trooper, vainly endeavour to sort

the letters and newspapers quickly enough to satisfy the crowd, all

eager for news from home. During the hot dry months, Coolgardie has been

almost cut off from the outside world. It was found necessary to limit

the traffic between it and Southern Cross, owing to the great scarcity

in the 'soaks' and wells along the road. Condensers have been erected at

various stations close to the salt lakes, and the water is retailed by

the gallon; by this means the road can be kept open till the wet season

sets in.

Prospectors are energetically exploring the country in every direction

around Coolgardie, and from all sides come glowing accounts of the

quality of the land, which, besides being auriferous, is undoubtedly

suitable for agricultural and pastoral purposes. To the eastward lie

many thousands of acres of undulating pasture-land, wooded like a park

with morrell, sandalwood, wild peach, zimlet-wood, salmon-gum, and other

valuable timbers. The soil is a rich red loam, which with cultivation

should equal the best wheat-growing districts of Victoria. So green and

abundant is the grass that it has been described as looking like an

immense wheat-field before the grain has formed. Several kinds of grass

are to be found: the fine kangaroo variety; a species of wild oats; and

a coarse jointed grass, all of which stock eat with relish, and thrive,

it is said.

A Water-supply Department has been formed by the Western Australian

government, and measures are being taken to obtain supplies of artesian

water, as well as to construct a system of reservoirs and dams on a

large scale.

Mr Bayley's discovery of Coolgardie might serve as an apt illustration

of the 'early-bird' theory. While on a prospecting expedition in

September 1892, he went one auspicious morning to look after his horse

before breakfast. A gleaming object lying on the ground caught his eye.

It was a nugget, weighing half an ounce. By noon, he, with his mate, had

picked up twenty ounces of alluvial gold. In a couple of weeks they had

a store of two hundred ounces. It was on a Sunday afternoon that they

struck the now world-famed Reward Claim, and in a few hours they had

picked off fifty ounces. Next morning they pegged out their prospecting

area. But whilst thus profitably employed, they were unpleasantly

surprised by the arrival of three miners who had followed up their

tracks from Southern Cross. The discoverers worked on during the day at

the cap of the reef, and by such primitive methods as the 'dolly-pot,'

or pestle and mortar, easily obtained three hundred ounces of the

precious metal. The unwelcome visitors stole two hundred ounces of the

gold, a circumstance which obliged them to report their 'find' sooner

than they would otherwise have done, fearing that, if they delayed, the

thieves would do so instead, and claim the reward from the government.

On condition that they would not molest his mate during his absence, Mr

Bayley agreed to say nothing about their having robbed him, and set out

on his long ride to Southern Cross. He took with him five hundred and

fifty-four ounces of gold with which to convince the Warden that his

discovery was a genuine one. The field was declared open after his

interview with the authorities.

DIAMONDS.

The diamond is a natural form of crystallised carbon, highly valued as a

precious stone, but of much less value than the ruby. The lustre of the

diamond is peculiar to itself, and hence termed 'adamantine.' In a

natural condition, however, the surface often presents a dull,

lead-gray, semi-metallic lustre. The high refractive and dispersive

powers of the diamond produce, when the stone is judiciously cut, a

brilliancy and 'fire' unequalled by any other stone. A large proportion

of the incident light is in a well-cut diamond reflected from the inner

surface of the stone. The diamond, especially when coloured, is highly

phosphorescent, that is to say, after exposure to brilliant illumination

it emits the rays which it has absorbed, and thus becomes self-luminous

in the dark. Its excessive hardness serves to distinguish the diamond

from other gem-stones: any stone which readily scratches ruby and

sapphire must be a diamond. Notwithstanding its hardness the diamond is

brittle, and hence the absurdity of the ancient test which professed to

distinguish the diamond by its withstanding a heavy blow struck by a

hammer when placed on an anvil.

In recent years, highly refined researches on this subject have been

made by Dumas, Stas, Roscoe, and Friedel, all tending to prove that the

diamond is practically pure carbon. Chemists have generally

experimented, for the sake of economy, with impure specimens, and have

thus obtained on combustion a considerable amount of ash, the nature of

which has not been well ascertained. It has been shown, however, that

the purer the diamond the smaller is the proportion of ash left on its

combustion.

[Illustration: Square-cut Brilliant.]

[Illustration: Round-cut Brilliant.]

[Illustration: Rose-cut Diamond.]

The art of cutting and polishing the diamond is said to have been

discovered in 1456 by Louis de Berguem of Bruges. As now practised, the

stone is first, if necessary, cleaved or split, and then 'bruted' or

rubbed into shape. The faces of the stone thus 'cut' are ground and

polished on flat metal discs, fed with diamond dust and oil, and

revolving with great rapidity by steam-power. Antwerp comes first, then

Amsterdam as the chief home of this industry, and the trade is chiefly

in the hands of Jews; but diamond cutting and polishing are also now

extensively carried on in London, Antwerp, &c. The common form of the

diamond is either the _brilliant_ or the _rose cut_. The brilliant

resembles two truncated cones, base to base, the edge of the junction

being called the _girdle_, the large plane on the top is the _table_,

and the small face at the base the _culet_; the sides are covered with

symmetrical facets. The rose has a flat base, with sides formed of rows

of triangular facets rising as a low pyramid or hemisphere; but this

form of diamond is daily becoming less fashionable, and is therefore of

comparatively little value.

Although the term 'carat' is applied to diamonds as well as to gold, it

does not mean the same thing. Used with regard to the metal, it

expresses quality or fineness--24-carat being pure gold; and 22-carat

equal to coined gold. But applied to the diamond, carat means actual

weight, and 151-1/2 carats are equal to one ounce troy.

India was formerly the only country which yielded diamonds in quantity,

and thence were obtained all the great historical stones of antiquity.

The chief diamond-producing districts are those in the Madras

Presidency, on the Kistna and Godavari rivers, commonly though

improperly termed the Golconda region; in the Central Provinces,

including the mines of Sumbulpur; and in Bundelkhand, where the Panna

mines are situated.

At present the diamond production of India is insignificant. It is

notable, however, that in 1881 a fine diamond, weighing 67-3/8 carats,

was found near Wajra Karur, in the Bellary district, Madras. The stone

was cut into a brilliant weighing 24-5/8 carats, and is known as the

'Gor-do-Norr.'

Brazil was not regarded as a diamond-yielding country until 1727, when

the true nature of certain crystals found in the gold washings of the

province of Minas Geraes was first detected. Diamonds occur not only in

this province, but in Bahia, Goyaz, Matto Grosso, and Parana. The

geological conditions under which the mineral occurs have of late years

been carefully studied by Professors Derby, Gorceix, and Chatrian. The

diamonds are found in the sands and gravels of river-beds, associated

with alluvial gold, specular iron ore, rutile, anatase, topaz, and

tourmaline. In 1853 an extraordinary diamond was found by a negress in

the river Bogagem, in Minas Geraes. It weighed 254-1/2 carats, and was

cut into a brilliant of perfect water, weighing 125 carats. This

brilliant, known as the 'Star of the South,' was sold to the Gaikwar of

Baroda for L80,000.

Both the Indian and the Brazilian diamond-fields have of late years been

eclipsed by the remarkable discoveries of South Africa. Although it was

known in the last century that diamonds occurred in certain parts of

South Africa, the fact was forgotten, and when in 1867 they were found

near Hopetown, the discovery came upon the world as a surprise. A

traveller named O'Reilly had rested himself at a farm in the Hopetown

district, when his host, a man named Niekerk, brought him some

nice-looking stones which he had got from the river. O'Reilly, when

examining the pebbles, saw a diamond, which afterwards realised L500.

Niekerk afterwards bought a diamond from a native for L400 which

realised L10,000. The principal mines are situated in Griqualand West,

but diamonds are also worked in the Orange River Free State, as at

Jagersfontein. The stones were first procured from the 'river diggings'

in the Vaal and Orange rivers. These sources have occasionally yielded

large stones; one found in 1872 at Waldeck's Plant on the Vaal weighed

288-3/8 carats, and yielded a fine pale yellow brilliant, known as the

'Stewart.'

[Illustration: Kimberley Diamond-mine.]

It was soon found that the diamonds of South Africa were not confined to

the river gravels, and 'dry diggings' came to be established in the

so-called 'pans.' The principal mines are those of Kimberley, De Beer's,

Du Toit's Pan, and Bultfontein. The land here, previously worth only a

few pence per acre, soon rose to a fabulous price. At these localities

the diamonds occur in a serpentinous breccia, filling pipes or

'chimneys,' generally regarded as volcanic ducts, which rise from

unknown depths and burst through the surrounding shales. The 'blue

ground,' or volcanic breccia containing fragments of various rocks

cemented by a serpentinous paste, becomes altered by meteoric agents as

it approaches the surface, and is converted into 'yellow earth.' At

Kimberley the neighbouring schists, or 'reefs,' are associated with

sheets of a basaltic rock, which are pierced by the pipes. About 2000

white men are employed in the industry, and about 4000 blacks, who earn,

on an average, about L3 a week. In the year 1887 the production of the

principal mines was over L4,000,000. The production for 1894 was

somewhat less, while the total value of diamonds exported from 1867 to

1894 was about L70,000,000.

The great number of large stones found in the mines of South Africa, as

compared with those of India and Brazil, is a striking peculiarity. In

the earliest days of African mining a diamond of about 83 carats was

obtained from a Boer. This stone, when cut, yielded a splendid

colourless brilliant of 46-1/2 carats, known as the 'Star of South

Africa,' or as the 'Dudley,' since it afterwards became the property of

the Countess of Dudley, at a cost of L25,000. Some of the African stones

are 'off coloured'--that is, of pale yellow or brown tints; but a large

gem of singular purity was found at Kimberley in 1880. This is the

famous 'blue-white' diamond of 150 carats, known from the name of its

possessor as the 'Porter Rhodes.' At the De Beer's Mine was found, in

1889, the famous stone which was shown at the Paris Exposition. It

weighed 428-1/2 carats in the rough, and 228-1/2 carats when cut. It

measured one inch and seven-eighths in greatest length, and was about an

inch and a half square.

Even larger than this remarkable stone is a diamond found in the

Jagersfontein Mine in 1893, and named the 'Jagersfontein Excelsior.'

This is now the largest and most valuable diamond in the world. It is of

blue-white colour, very fine quality, and measures three inches at the

thickest part. The gross weight of this unique stone was no less than

969-1/2 carats (or about 6-1/2 oz.), and the following are its recorded

dimensions: Length, 2-1/2 inches; greatest width, 2 inches; smallest

width, 1-1/2 inches; extreme girth in width, 5-3/8 inches; extreme girth

in length, 6-3/4 inches. It is impossible to say what is the value of so

phenomenal a gem. We do not know that an estimate has been even

attempted; but it may easily be half a million if the cutting is

successful. The diamond has, however, a black flaw in the centre. It is

the property of a syndicate of London diamond merchants. The native who

found it evaded the overseer, and ran to headquarters to secure the

reward, which took the form of L100 in gold and a horse and cart.

Previous to this discovery, the most famous of the African diamonds was,

perhaps, the 'Pam' or 'Jagersfontein' stone, not so much from its size,

as because the Queen had ordered it to be sent to Osborne for her

inspection with a view to purchase, when the untimely death of the Duke

of Clarence put an end to the negotiations. The 'Pam' is only of 55

carats now; but it weighed 112 carats before being cut, and is a stone

of remarkable purity and beauty. Its present value is computed at about

twenty-five thousand pounds sterling.

The most valuable diamond in the world is (if it is a diamond) the

famous 'Braganza' gem belonging to Portugal. It weighed in the rough

state 1680 carats, and was valued at upwards of 5-1/2 millions sterling.

It has long been known that diamonds occur in Australia, but hitherto

the Australian stones have been all of small size, and it is notable

that these are much more difficult to cut, being harder than other

diamonds. Although Victoria and South Australia have occasionally

yielded diamonds, it is New South Wales that has been the principal

producer. The chief diamond localities have been near Mudgee, on the

Cudjegong River, and near Bingera, on the river Horton.

Borneo also yields diamonds. The stone known as the 'Matan' is said to

have been found in 1787 in the Landak mines, near the west coast of

Borneo. It is described as being an egg-shaped stone, indented on one

side, and weighing, in its uncut state, 367 carats. Great doubt,

however, exists as to the genuineness of this stone, and the Dutch

experts who examined it a few years ago pronounced it to be simply

rock-crystal. Among other diamond localities may be mentioned the Ural

Mountains and several of the United States. The largest diamond yet

recorded from North America was found at Manchester, Chesterfield

county, Virginia. It weighed 23-3/4 carats, and yielded, when cut, a

brilliant known as the 'Ou-i-nur,' which weighed, however, only 11-3/4

carats.

A few special diamonds, from their exceptional size or from the

circumstances of their history, deserve notice. Of all the great

diamonds, the 'Koh-i-nur' is perhaps the most interesting. While

tradition carries it back to legendary times, it is known from history

that the Sultan Ala-ed-din in 1304 acquired this gem on the defeat of

the Rajah of Malwa, whose family had possessed it for many generations.

In 1526 it passed by conquest to Humaiun, the son of Sultan Baber. When

Aurungzebe subsequently possessed this stone, he used it as one of the

eyes of the peacock adorning his famous peacock throne. On the conquest

of Mohammed Shah by Nadir Shah in 1739, the great diamond was not found

among the Delhi treasures, but learning that Mohammed carried it

concealed in his turban, Nadir, on the grand ceremony of reinstating

the Mogul emperor on the throne at the conclusion of peace, offered to

exchange turbans, in token of reconciliation, and by this ruse obtained

possession of the gem. It was when Nadir first saw the diamond on

unfolding the turban, that he exclaimed 'Koh-i-nur,' or 'Mountain of

Light,' the name by which the gem has ever since been known. At Nadir's

death it passed to his unfortunate son, Shah Rokh, by whom it was

ultimately given to Ahmed Shah, the founder of the Durani Afghan empire.

By Ahmed it was bequeathed to his son, Taimur Shah; and from his

descendants it passed, after a series of romantic incidents, to

Runjit-Singh. On the death of Runjit, in 1839, the diamond was preserved

in the treasury of Lahore, and on the annexation of the Punjab by the

British in 1849, when the property of the state was confiscated to the

East India Company, it was stipulated that the Koh-i-nur should be

presented to the Queen of England. It was consequently taken in charge

by Lord Dalhousie, who sent it to England in 1850. After the Great

Exhibition of 1851, where it had been exhibited, it was injudiciously

re-cut in London by Voorsanger, a skilful workman from Messrs Coster's

factory at Amsterdam. The re-cutting occupied 38 days of 12 hours each,

and the weight of the stone was reduced from 186-1/16 to 106-1/16

carats. The form is that of a shallow brilliant, too thin to display

much fire. According to Lady Burton, it is believed to bring ill-luck to

its possessor.

The 'Nizam' is the name of a stone said to have been found in the once

famous diamond-mines of Golconda. Sir William Hunter, however, gives us

to understand that there were really no diamond-mines at Golconda, and

that the place won its name by cutting the stones found on the eastern

borders of the Nizam's territory, and on a ridge of sandstone running

down to the rivers Kistna and Godavery, in the Madras Presidency.

However that may have been, both regions are now unproductive of

valuable stones. The 'Nizam' diamond is said to weigh 340 carats, and to

be worth L200,000; but we are unable to verify the figures.

The 'Great Table' is another Indian diamond, the present whereabouts of

which is not known. It is said to weigh 242-1/2 carats, and that 500,000

rupees (or at par, L50,000) was once refused for it. The 'Great Table'

is sometimes known as 'Tavernier's' diamond. It was the first blue

diamond ever seen in Europe, and was brought, in 1642, from India by

Tavernier. It was sold to Louis XIV. in 1668, and was described then as

of a beautiful violet colour; but it was flat and badly cut. At what

date it was re-cut we know not, but, as possessed by Louis Le Grand, it

weighed only 67-1/2 carats. It was seized during the Revolution, and was

placed in the Garde Meuble; but it disappeared, and has not been traced

since. Some fifty years later, Mr Henry Hope purchased a blue diamond

weighing some 44-1/2 carats (now known as the 'Hope' diamond), which it

was conjectured may have been part of the 'Great Table.' It is preserved

in the Green Vaults, Dresden, and is regarded as one of the most superb

coloured diamonds known.

Another famous Indian diamond is the 'Great Mogul,' which appears to

have been found about 1650, in the Kollur mine, on the Kistna. It was

seen by the French jeweller Tavernier at the court of Aurungzebe in

1665, and is described as a round white rose-cut stone of 280 carats.

Its subsequent history is unknown, and it is probable that at the

sacking of Delhi by Nadir Shah in 1739 it was stolen and broken up. Some

authorities have sought to identify the Great Mogul with the Koh-i-nur,

and others with the Orloff.

[Illustration: SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL DIAMONDS OF THE WORLD: _a_, Great

Mogul; _b_, Star of the South; _c_, Koh-i-nur; _d_, Regent; _e_, Orloff.

All actual size.]

The 'Orloff' is an Indian stone which was purchased at Amsterdam in 1776

by Prince Orloff for Catharine II. of Russia. The stone at one time

formed the eye of an idol in a temple in the island of Seringham, in

Mysore, whence it is said to have been stolen by a French soldier, who

sold it to an English trader for L2000. The Englishman brought it home,

and sold it for L12,000 to a Jew, who passed it on at a profit to an

Armenian merchant. From the Armenian it was acquired, either by

Catharine of Russia, or, for her, by one of her admirers, for L90,000

and a pension. It is now valued at L100,000. It weighs 193 carats, is

about the size of a pigeon's egg, and is mounted in the imperial sceptre

of the Czar.

Other famous stones are: The 'Austrian Yellow,' belonging to the crown

of Austria, weighing 76-1/2 carats, and valued at L50,000; the

'Cumberland,' belonging to the crown of Hanover, weighing 32 carats, and

worth at least L10,000; the 'English Dresden,' belonging to the Gaikwar

of Baroda, weighing 76-1/2 carats, and valued at L40,000; the

'Nassak'--which the Marquis of Westminster wore on the hilt of his sword

at the birthday ceremonial immediately after the Queen's

accession--which weighs 78-1/2 carats, and is valued at L30,000.

The 'Regent' is a famous diamond preserved among the national jewels in

Paris. It was found in 1701, at the Parteal mines, on the Kistna, by a

slave, who escaped with it to the coast, where he sold it to an English

skipper, by whom he was afterwards treacherously killed. Thomas Pitt,

grandfather of the first Earl of Chatham, at that time governor of Fort

St George, purchased the stone, and had it re-cut in London, whence it

is often known as the 'Pitt.' Its original weight was 410 carats, but it

was reduced in cutting to 136-3/4; the result, however, was a brilliant

of fine water and excellent proportions. Pitt sold it in 1717, through

the financier John Law, to the Duke of Orleans, then Regent of France

during the minority of Louis XV. The price paid was L135,000, and its

value has since been estimated at L480,000. The stone is now among the

French jewels in the Museum of Paris.

The large 'Sancy' is an historical diamond, about which many

contradictory stories have been told. It appears that the Sancy was an

Indian stone, purchased about 1570 by M. de Sancy, French ambassador at

Constantinople. It passed temporarily into the possession of Henry III.

and Henry IV. of France, and was eventually sold by Sancy to Queen

Elizabeth of England. By James II. it was disposed of to Louis XIV.,

about 1695, for L25,000. At the beginning of the 19th century it passed

to the Demidoff family in Russia, and by them it was sold in 1865 to Sir

Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy. In 1889 it was again in the market, the price

asked being L20,000.

The Russian diamond, 'Moon of Mountains,' is set in the imperial

sceptre, weighs 120 carats, and is valued at 450,000 roubles, or, say,

about L75,000. The 'Mountain of Splendour,' belonging to the Shah of

Persia, weighs 135 carats, and is valued at L145,000. In the Persian

regalia there is said to be another diamond, called the 'Abbas Mirza,'

weighing 130 carats, and worth L90,000.

THE HON. CECIL J. RHODES, THE DIAMOND KING.

We get a good insight into the character of Mr Rhodes from all his

utterances and public acts; and an anecdote about him when busy with the

work that made him famous as the 'Diamond King,' the amalgamation of the

diamond-mines, shows up the man. He was looking at a map of Africa hung

in the office of a Kimberley merchant. After looking at it closely for

some time, he placed his hand over a large part of Southern and Central

Africa, right across the continent, and turning to a friend at his

side, said, 'There, all that British! That is my dream.' 'I give you ten

years,' said his friend. When he was in power at the Cape, and the times

were ripe, his dream was realised, and the shield of the great White

Queen was thrown over North and South Zambesia, and railway and

telegraphic communication was being pushed on towards the equator.

The Right Hon. Cecil John Rhodes is the fourth son of a clergyman, of

Bishop Stortford, where he was born in 1853. He was educated at the

local school, but his health being far from good, he was sent to Natal

to join his elder brother, a planter there. Both brothers made for

Kimberley at the first diamond rush, Cecil going into partnership as a

diamond digger with Mr C. D. Rudd, who had also gone out to South Africa

for his health. While at Kimberley, young Rhodes read sufficiently to

enable him to pass at Oxford. His crowning achievement of the union of

the De Beers Company and the Kimberley Central Company was not the work

of a day, but it was accomplished largely through Mr Rhodes's financial

skill, and became known as the De Beers Consolidated Mines, of which he

was elected chairman and one of the life governors. The capital

valuation of the company now stands at about twenty-five millions.

Regular dividends of twenty-five per cent. have been paid for some

years. It was natural that an influential man like Mr Rhodes should be

sent to the Cape Parliament, and in 1889 he rose to be a member of the

Cabinet. Another successful attempt at company promoting was his

association with Mr Rudd in the Transvaal gold-fields. At first their

mines on the Witwatersrandt did not turn out well; but it is long since

they began to pay enormously, the net profits of 1894 being over two

millions, while the market value of the concern is ten millions

sterling.

Several gold prospectors had dealings with and concessions from

Lobengula, in Matabeleland, before Mr Rudd and Mr Rhodes joined forces

in 1888 and secured mineral concessions covering the whole of his

kingdom. Then came the launching of the Chartered Company, incorporated

in October 1889, with a capital of one million, which has since been

raised to two and a half millions. Then Mashonaland was prospected, and

forts built and roads were made, and the telegraph was carried on to

Salisbury, giving connection with the Cape. When it was found that the

settlers could not live in peace with Lobengula, a force under Dr

Jameson, the administrator, broke the power of the Matabele in the

autumn of 1893. The only serious affair was the deaths of forty-nine men

of Wilson's column. Since that time the country has been slowly settled,

and the railway is being pushed on to Buluwayo. Mr Rhodes has interested

himself also in pushing on the telegraph system towards the Great

Central African lakes, by way of Zumbo, in the Central African

Protectorate, under the capable rule of Sir H. H. Johnston. Matabeleland

is an excellent pastoral country, and if a sufficient number of

agricultural emigrants could be got to remain and develop the territory,

its future would be secured. Unfortunately, this class of emigrant has

hitherto been lacking in South Africa--the gold and diamond fields have

been too tempting--but in time, doubtless, the slow and sure sort of

emigrant will find it to his interest to develop the land.

The residence of Mr Rhodes is at Groote Schnur, Rondebosch, near Cape

Town. In the twelve hundred acres which surround the house there are

charming views, and a natural Zoo, upon which he is said to have spent

at least one hundred thousand pounds. He has thrown this place open to

pleasure-seekers from the Cape for all time coming. He enjoys riding

over his estate, and watching the visitors enjoying themselves. Lord

Salisbury once termed him a 'remarkable man.' This is well borne out by

all who have come in contact with him. 'He presents,' says the _African

Review_, 'a character that is well worthy of analysis--that is a curious

compound of generosity and almost repellent cynicism, of

disinterestedness and ambition, of large aims that are dependent on

things that are essentially trivial; the keen, hard-tempered character

of a self-made man who has carved a career out of Kimberley finance and

Cape Colonial politics.... Of giant force of mind and will, with

practised judgment that nearly amounts to intuitive perception, with a

grasp of cause and effect that is founded upon a microscopic observation

of the laws of nature, he is decidedly a big man. He is a rarely

accurate critic of his fellow-mortals.'

Dr Jameson prophesied, when in this country in 1895, that the annexation

and occupation of Matabeleland and Mashonaland meant more than mere

annexation of territory, but would lead to a commercial union,

amalgamation, or federation of South African states. In Rhodesia, a

country nearly as large as Europe, white men and women could live, and

white children could be reared in health and vigour. Gold was to be

found there, and coal and iron. The country has been settled since the

power of Lobengula was broken, and the road and railway are doing their

beneficent work. The revenue for 1894 nearly balanced the expenditure.

When Mashonaland and Matabeleland needed the railway, Mr Rhodes was

still the key of the position. 'Krueger will not let us take the

Kimberley line into his country? Very well,' in effect said Mr Rhodes,

'we will take it round him, and beyond, on the way to the Transvaal of

the Zambesi.' And so the matter was arranged between the Imperial and

Colonial government and the Chartered Company. So much land was to be

given for taking the line to Vryburg, so much to Mafeking, in

connection with the main trunk line from the Cape.

Dr Jameson's raid into Transvaal territory, early in 1896, ostensibly

taken for the purpose of helping the people of Johannesburg, who

complained of their treatment by the Boer government, and the

complications which ensued, led to the resignation of Mr Rhodes as a

member of the Cape government, when he turned his attention to the

development of Rhodesia, the new and promising territory, which has been

so named after him.

[Illustration: African Village.]

[Illustration]