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Ch. 2: Kimberley & Its Diamond Mines

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DIAMONDS
the bare veldt stretches its level length, relieved only by distant hills on the horizon.
The Pipes or Craters
The five diamond mines or craters are all contained in a circle 3J miles in diameter. They are irregularly shaped round or oval pipes, extending vertically downwards to an unknown depth, retaining about the same diameter throughout (Fig. 3). They are said to be volcanic necks, filled from below with a heterogeneous mixture of fragments of the surrounding rocks, and of older rocks such as granite, mingled and cemented with a bluish-coloured, hard clayey mass, in which famous blue clay the imbedded diamonds are hidden.
The craters or mines are situate in depressions, which have no outlets for the water which falls upon the neighbouring hills. The watersheds of these hills drain into ponds, called pans or vleis. The water, which accumulates in these ponds during 18
Ch. 2: Kimberley & Its Diamond Mines Page of 171 Ch. 2: Kimberley & Its Diamond Mines
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