As
one descends the shaft in the cage in pitch darkness and suddenly comes
to a large opening brightly lighted with numerous electric lamps, the
scene is weird and confusing. A score of natives, half dressed, each
vying with the other in shouting his own comments upon the visitors as
they come forth from the cage; the whirl of heavy iron trucks as they
go to and fro ; the banging of the tippers as they turn over and
deposit the contents of the enclosed truck into a chute below, — all
present a picture unique in itself and only to be seen in passing
through the shafts at De Beers and Kimberley mines. Those who have
travelled through the native centres, or have seen the negroes
loitering about the towns, and have thought them lazy, indolent,
beer-drinking beings, should visit the diamond mines, and especially
the scene upon the " flat sheet" as described above, and they will get
a new impression of the working capacity of these despised black men.
The natives working in the diamond
