PRINCIPAL SOUTH AFRICAN MINES 303
sions,
a second portion of the farm Spitzkof, No. 31 (Wilge river) in extent
673 morgen, 420 square roods, and a portion of the farm Kameelfontein
No. 106, in extent 236 morgen, 505 square roods, for the construction
of three large dams in addition to one of 4,000,000 gallons capacity
built on the Elandsfontein farm. The three large reservoirs have a
capacity of 246,000,000 gallons, and are fed from springs and borings
on the land. In them the water is collected for use in the dry season.
Cullinan
bought the property in October, 1902, and wasted no time in getting to
work. On washing the first boring, he got a few garnets, olivines, and
other stones usually associated with diamonds, but no diamonds. One
may imagine the anxiety with which another trial was made. The second
boring, on being washed, yielded eleven diamonds, one of them weighing
sixteen carats. It was the beginning of a mine which has been prolific
of large stones. In the first year or two, it produced four of over
three hundred carats each; two between two and three hundred carats
each, and sixteen between one and two hundred carats each. In January,
1905, the Cullinan of over three thousand carats was found, and
another of 334 carats was brought to light in the middle of the next
month. Satisfied by the experiments that diamonds were really there, a
washing plant was immediately installed and put in operation.
In
those first months of the mine's history, much prospecting was done.'
One hundred and eight shafts with a total footage of 2,362 feet, were
sunk. Two bore holes, one of them a thousand feet deep, and the other
