62 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
	for the employes in the mines is fixed by government regu­lation, which provides that no boy under twelve shall be employed. Another regulation prohibits the employment of females in mining work. It is further provided that no native shall be employed underground, or in any of the compounds, except under the responsible charge of a white employe of the
	company. The handling of the dynamite cartridges used in blast­ing is intrusted solely to white employes, and all work done by the native gangs is laid out and directed by white overseers. The drilling in the blue ground is done for the most part with long hand drills,—jumpers, — which are sharpened at both ends, and which the natives readily learn to use effectively; where the blue rock is hard, the natives use single hand hammers. Their sinewy frames and powers of endurance enable them to