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DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA 239
shoveled,
and sieve the balance dry in a square sieve with four handles requiring
two men for the operation. The miners also learned that diamonds were
always found in a certain kind of yellow earth that lay upon, or very
near the surface, and which penetrated the earth to some distance,
consequently wherever they found that yellow ground, mining claims were
staked and worked over for the diamonds it always contained.
The
number of these claims grew, and the number of those who worked them
increased, and to them were added a motley collection of natives, until
there was a horde of men of every kind and class, engaged in an
occupation which stimulated greed, encouraged theft, and attracted
rascality from all quarters. Soon, even the unruly found, that not only
some kind of law, but a governmental power able to enforce it was
necessary. But what government? The mines were in a no-man's land. They
were near the undoubted territory of the Orange Free State, but the
English were on the spot, and English capital was being invested
rapidly in the development of the mines, therefore England became
interested. Under these circumstances the appropriation of the
territory on the appeal of the miners and the Griqua chief, was but a
natural evolution of conditions. It should be remembered also that at
the time, neither miners nor capitalists had any idea of the vast
reservoirs of diamondiferous earth which lay under what they all
supposed were shallow alluvial deposits. Diamond-mining then, was not
regarded as a permanent industry which would keep an army busy for many
years, unearthing treasures buried so deep that the art and science of
the old countries would be stimulated to furnish the
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