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THE BOOK OF DIAMONDS
mines are one mile apart and the Bultfontein and DuToit's Pan less than a quarter of a mile apart.
This
second find, "Star of South Africa", created such a sensation that it
drew the attention of the world to South Africa and soon fortune
hunters were flocking there from all quarters of the globe. In the
midst of the quiet Boer farms there sprang up small ragged mining
villages along the banks of the Orange and Vaal Rivers that resulted in
considerable discoveries so that in 1870 there was a mining camp of no
less than 10,000 persons on the "River Diggings".
In
the River Diggings the mining was carried on in the coarse river
gravels. A committee who controlled the digging limited the size of
claims to 30 feet square, with free access to the river bank. But
towards the close of 1870 stones were found far from the Vaal River and
this led to a second great rush in 1871 to what is now known as the
Kimberley mine. The diamonds are found in both river diggings and dry
diggings. River diggings occur along the Vaal River from Potchefstroom
down to the junction with the Orange and up the latter river as far as
Hopetown.
Diamond
mining is conducted in a similar manner to gold washing, the operations
usually being on a limited scale. The dry diggings are on the borders
of the Orange River Colony, about 640 miles northeast of Cape Town.
They contain a number of small areas of circular or oval form, ranging
in diameter up to one-fourth of a mile. They are at present worked by a
single company, the DeBeers Consolidated Mines Limited. The mines are
opened on a
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