nearly 5,000,000 truck-loads, or more than 4,000,000 tons of blue ground, have been washed in a year, the mind only faintly conceives the prodigious size of the mass that is annually drawn from the old craters and laboriously washed and sorted for the sake of a few bucketfuls of diamonds. It would form a cube of more than 430 feet, or a block larger than any cathedral in the world, and overtopping the spire of St. Paul's, while a box with sides measuring 2 feet 9 inches would hold the gems. From two to three million carats of diamonds are turned out of the De Beers mines in a year, and as 5,000,000 carats go to the ton, this represents half a ton of diamonds. To the end of 1892 10 tons of diamonds had come from this mine, valued at £60,000,000 sterling. This mass of blazing diamonds could be accommodated in a box 5 feet square and 6 feet high.
The diamond is a luxury, and there is only a limited demand for it throughout the world-
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