DIAMOND MIXES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 67
field.
The diamond districts of the Vaal had proved an entire success.
Seventy-two large diamonds were found at Pniel in one week; ninety-one
were unearthed by a single digger within a fortnight; diamonds to the
amount of $500,000 had been picked up by Europeans.
A
regular organization of diggers was formed near the mission station of
Pniel,—itself, as afterwards proved, one of the richest localities. A
" digging committee " apportioned to each man so many square feet, to
be worked at once or abandoned. The diamond claims of these " dry
diggings " came eventually to be sunk sixty feet below the surface;
sometimes seventeen feet of red sand was removed before diamondiferous
soil could be reached. The best yield occurred generally at the depth
of twenty or twenty-five feet. The natives worked in these pits with
pick and shovel; above them were the sorting-tables, some under cover,
some not; and between the crowded pits carts crawled along, bringing
burdens of gravel to the tables, to be sorted by the Europeans.
The
excitement had now reached its height. Not only did every town of South
Africa empty itself of men for "the diggings," but diamond-hunters
made their appearance from every quarter of the globe. There were forty
thousand people within a line of seventy miles upon the banks of the
Vaal
