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Ch. 20: The Mines Besieged

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THE MINES BESIEGED                         261
small bottles, the contents of which would be emptied in the brew, "just to make it a little more appetizing, don't you know." The allowance of meat was a half pound for two days, which could be exchanged for soup. Long rows of people stood for hours awaiting their turn to be served.
When the siege commenced, De Beers had 8000 tons of coal in stock and also about 2000 tons of wood. There were about 1500 cases of dynamite belonging to merchants, and De Beers had several hundred cases in stock. Owing to the
dangerous proximity of the magazine to the town, it became necessary to remove nearly all the dynamite to a magazine at Dronfield, about six miles north of Kimberley, from which, for a time, supplies were drawn ; but these magazines were subse­quently blown up by the Boers.
In order to do as much work as possible while the supply of coal and dynamite lasted, permission was obtained from the officer commanding for the miners to resume work in the mines, on condition that substitutes were found to take their places in the forts. A company of men was organized at De Beers and Kimberley mines by the assistant general manager, which was
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