154 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
colorless
as to defy any scrutiny except that of experts. Deep orange yellow
stones were occasionally found, and shades of yellow grading to the
finest straw color were represented as well as pale blue, brown, and
pink, and other hues; but any color except white or yellow was rarely
to be seen. The commonest crystalline form was the octahedron, but
perfect dodecahedrons were not unusual, and twin stones or a
conglomeration of crystals sometimes appeared. There was no adhering
film or envelope such as commonly dulls the lustre of the Brazilian
diamond crystals. The stones of the Vaal are clear and bright.1
Digging
for diamonds never becomes dull drudgery, for there is always the
glittering possibility in the mind's eye of upheaving a king's ransom
with the turn of a shovel, and it is far more exciting to a novice than
mining for gold or any other minerals. But the diggers on the Vaal
River fields soon learned that the actual disclosure of a diamond on
the face of the gravel which he was shovelling was a very rare
occurrence, for only the largest stones were likely to be seen in a
mass of earth and pebbles, and few even of these were actually detected
in the sinking of the pits on the river banks. So the miners were
rarely so absorbed in their search that they worked without stopping to
eat, but they clung to the last gleams of the sun as the miners have
done in the rich gold pocket placers of America and Australia. The
diggers and washers went to work usually at the same hour, about
sunrise, took an hour ofT for breakfast, and for dinner or lunch, and
stopped work when the sun went down. In the hotter weeks of the African
summer season (the summer — November, December, January, and February —
is the hot as well as the wet season) they did little or no work in the
midday, and when heavy rain and hail storms swept over the fields, all
sought for cover.
1 "South African Diamond Fields and Journey to Mines," William Jacob Morton, New York, 1877. " The
Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Pavton, 1872. "Diamonds and Gold of
South Africa," Mitchell, 1888. "To the Cape for Diamonds," Frederic
Boyle, London, 1873. "Diamond Fields of South Africa, by One who has
visited the Fields," New York, 1872.
