Ch. 12: Diamond Mines of S. Africa (con't)

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	CHAPTER XII

	DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA ----CONTINUED FROM the discovery of diamonds in Africa until 1884, there are no records by which one may know with certainty what the production was, either in weight or in value. The probability is that up to and including 1873, it was not over one million carats. From 1874 to 1883, however, there was a very large increase. The output ranged probably from a million carats in 1874 to something over two million carats in 1883 and possibly three million carats each for the years 1881 and 1882. From 1884, official records were kept of the exports from Cape Town to London. These show an average of close on to three million carats per annum for the twenty years including 1903, at an average yearly value of nearly twenty-six and three-quarter millions of dollars, the average value per carat being lowest in 1888 at $5,095 and highest in 1902 at $9,922. Large percentages in the yield of diamonds were reported in the early days, of the Kimberley mine especially, and undoubtedly there were very rich streaks and spots in the mine then as now, but it seems probable that those reports give an exaggerated idea of the average yield of the entire mine. If some claims proved rich, others were very poor, and before the mines came under one management, it was probably the rich ones that were reported. There were also persistent rumors 253

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