could
learn what kind of stones they were which had drawn the army of
invaders into the barren Boer settlements. The scientist and
geologist, Mr. Draper, was there, and he recognized a diamond among the
stones Du Plooy had. Whether or ho he disclosed the fact to the Boer
farmer does not appear, but soon after, Mr. Hurley and some others
bought the Bultfontein farm for £2,000, began prospecting, and formed
the " Hope-town Company." Title to the land was afterwards conveyed to
the London and South African Exploration Company, when disputes among
former owners brought the case before the Land Commission in 1876.
While
this was being done, others were looking for diamonds among the kopjes
of the neighborhood, and some were found in a kopje on the Du Toit's
Pan farm, a half to three-quarters of a mile away, and claims were
staked out. This later became the Dutoitspan mine. Very soon after, the
Bultfontein mine was discovered. At that time, these were not the mines
as we know them, but places here and there over the surface, where a
digger, having found some diamonds, staked a claim to cover as much
about it as the mining rules allowed, upon the chance of finding more.
There was room for 1,753 such claims within the supposed
diamond-bearing area of the Bultfontein mine, as it was known later.
There were 1,067 original claims, equal to 23.54 acres.
The
mine is situated in the suburbs of Beaconsfield, about three-quarters
of a mile southwest from the Dutoitspan, and not quite three miles
southeast from Kim-berley. In extent it is the second largest of the
Kimberley mines. Possibly it has some subterranean connection with its
immediate neighbor, as it is reported
