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DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA 245
and would also be found either in the blue or below it, had been established.
This
idea that the blue was bed rock and that the end of the diamonds had
been reached, together with the inÂcreasing water charges, caused many
men to sell out. Some, if they could not find a purchaser, abandoned
their claims lest the charges should eat up all they had previously
made. The miners were forced to back their judgment of the mines with
their fortunes. If, as was first thought, these mines were huge basins
into which at some early period, a great mass of diamond-bearing earth
was swept, and the blue ground was the bed rock, then to keep on
working and pay the heavy charges being made, meant early ruin; if, on
the other hand, the new theory, that the diamonds had been thrown up
from the bowels of the earth, and that there were more in the blue or
under it, was correct, then fortunes awaited those who held onto the
mines. Some had faith and remained, acquiring all the properties they
could of those who had no faith and left.
It
was soon found that the blue ground was fully as rich in diamonds as
the yellow, and was practically inÂexhaustible. London and Paris heard
of it. Tales of fabulous fortunes made in the diamond mines of Africa
flew everywhere on the wings of rumor. Thousands itched for a share of
the stream of wealth coming out of those ancient volcanoes. Men at the
mines were not slow to recognize the opportunity. Here was a mine
opening, richer than the mines they already owned; the mine of the
stock market, in which the public would take the risks and the miner
the lion's share of the profits. Companies were floated, and the stock
was
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