diamond
of Russia was discovered on the west flank of the Ural Mountains by
Humboldt and Rose, in a gold placer field near the iron mines of
Bissersk. Here the prevailing rock formation, like that in the upper
diamond fields of Brazil, was itacolu-mite, with an admixture of mica
and iron pyrites.1 The debris washed into a few valleys
beneath this range yielded a meagre return to the searchers, but there
was nothing to inspire any ardent working, and in Bohemia, Australia,
Mexico, and the United States, the picking up of a few isolated
specimens was noted as a curious occurrence rather than as the
foundation of any hope of a productive diamond field.2
So,
at the time of the discoveries of diamonds on the banks of the Vaal
River, there was no known method for the extraction of diamonds beyond
the shovel of the Indian, the batea of the Brazilian, or the cradle of
the gold miner. There was no anticipation, on the part of the diamond
seekers, of any formation in Africa except the diamond-bearing gravel
of alluvial deposits, and the prospectors of the first rush did not
seek for diamonds beyond the gravel along the banks of the Vaal.
The Early Mining at Klip-drift, now called Barkly West.
The
first waves of the influx from the southern country and coast towns
were warmly greeted by the small parties at work on the Vaal. The
diggers were squatters, without any legal title to an inch of the river
bank, as they very well knew. But thev relied on actual possession
without contest, for their rocky field was so apparently worthless that
no farmer had cared to secure it. They did not trouble their heads with
any questioning whether the South African Republic covered their shore
line, or whether any native tribe laid claim to it, but they were
1 "A Treatise on Gems," Feuchtwanger, 1867. " Notices
sur les Diamants de POural," Parrot. "Transactions of the Imperial
Russian Mineralogical Society," at St. Petersburg, 1842. " De Novis
quibusdam Fossilibus quae in mon-tibus Uraliis inveniuntur," Gustav
Rose, 1839.
2 "Gems and Precious Stones of North America," Kunz, 1890.
