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DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA 235
anything,
consequently there were enough implements being sold at auction all the
time to supply the newcomers. The rocker was a crude affair. A box
about two and a half feet high, open at the top and one end, was put on
rockers like a cradle. In this were set at intervals, two or three
screens made of wire or perforated zinc; coarse, medium and fine; the
coarse one on top. A piece of wood nailed perpendicularly to the closed
end of the box served as a handle so that the digger could stand in
front and rock it. The earth and gravel was shoveled into the top
screen and one digger rocked while another poured in water. When the
screens were full of stones, caught as the water washed the dirt
through, they were taken out and the stones emptied onto a sorting
table, where the digger with a piece of zinc several inches long and
straight on one edge, scraped off the worthless stones, saving those of
value. Generally the table was scraped clean. Sometimes a new man
would joyfully save some glittering pieces of rock crystal, to learn
later from a more experienced neighbor that he had not yet caught the
precious diamond. But men soon learned to know at sight the spot of
light in the gravelly heap, which betrayed the gem, and the refuse
would be scraped away with a rapidity that impressed a new man as
improvident and reckless carelessness.
Some
diggers used two tubs for washing. A barrel cut in twain served the
purpose. The two halves were filled with water. A square sieve was
filled with gravel and shaken in the first tub until the dirt and fine
gravel was washed out. The stones were then rinsed in the second tub
and emptied on the sorting table.
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