44 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
may be imagined that no time was lost in extricating him and his men from their perilous position.
Of
recent years the measures described in Chapter XI have proved effective
in freeing Kimberley mine from this peril. The water which finds its
way into De Beers mine has not yet been entirely taken up, but by
driving tunnels around the mine to tap the water the danger has been
minimized. On the ist of October, 1899, six natives were overcome by a
mud rush and killed. Wherever there is the least sign of mud, the
workmen are withdrawn, and the places fenced off until the mud has come
out or the water is drained off, leaving the places safe for the miners
to reenter them.
As
there have been from ten to twelve thousand men employed in the mines
and workshops and on the depositing floors, three-fifths of whom are
underground workers, who are to a greater or less extent raw and
untrained natives, the percentage of deaths and injuries has not been
excessive.
In
the painstaking and valuable reports of Dr. C. Le Neve Foster, H. M.
Inspector of Mines, he compares the returns of casualties in the South
African mines with the like statistics of mines in which trained
Englishmen are employed. This comparison bears hardly in its
application to the diamond mines, in view of the fact that the great
majority of the native workers in these mines are "raw hands." There is
probably a change of half the workers in the mine every year, and the
men coming in to offset the outflow are mostly natives who have not
worked in the mines, and are familiarly known as "green hands." In time
these men are trained to a fair measure of proficiency, but it is to be
expected that the proportion of accidents to the numbers of such
workmen will be greater than the average in English mines.
From the carefully prepared statistics of Sir Frederic Augustus Abel, covering the loss of life in English mines,1 it appears that the greatest loss occurs from falls of the roof and sides
1 Supplement to Forty-fifth Annual Report of the Registrar General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in Great Britain.
