River.
Hotels, shops, music-halls flourished; two newspapers were started. One
after another new diamond-fields were brought to light. Du Toit's Pan,
De Beers, Pniel, New Rush, and Colesberg Kopje opened their dazzling
mines.
The
rival claims of different routes from the coast were contested with the
utmost zeal. Railways and telegraphs were projected, and modern
machines were hastened to the. scene. The mines were pronounced the
richest in the world. Diamonds weighing from 20 to 30 carats were not
unusual ; and among the exceptional treasures found were diamonds
weighing considerably more than 100 carats; including the beautiful
"Star of Beaufort," and the " Star of Diamonds," weighing 
carats; and a lovely stone, which attracted especial attention by
exhibiting, under the microscope, an aspect of pointed mountain
summits, lighted by vivid sunlight with all the colours of the rainbow.
Rubies and turquoises were also found.
But
all these successes were not unalloyed. There were droughts, and
fevers, and mournful death-lists. There were threatened invasions of
the Caffres that kept all the white men armed; and frauds that
occasioned lynch-law mobs; and annoyances on the frontiers. And there
were endless disputes of boundaries and territorial rights, not
altogether quelled when, to the joy of the miners, the British
