Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/204

 15i SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. it was at last resolved to clear out the whole of the interior, which was sinking day by day, in the form of a crater. In order to clear out the earth the plan was adopted of erecting a framework or wooden scaffolding round about the walls of the chasm, which had already reached a depth of over 2,000 feet. This contri- vance was disposed in several stages or landings, communicating with each claim by means of an endless baud nmde of leather, steel, or iron wire. Capstans, driven at first by hand labour and later by steam, raised the workmen and the buckets of earth from the bottom of the pit to the sorting platform. No other similar field of human industry presented a stronger spectacle than this vast cavity encircled by an intricate network of bright wires poising trucks of men and refuse in mid- air, and echoing with the constant din of human cries and grinding machinery. But the appearance of the works soon underwent a fresh change. The bottom of the pits has to a large extent been filled in by the continual landslips within the enclosure, sweeping with them the heaps of refuse and disintegrated rock. During the heavy rains the abyss has also been frequently flooded, so that the outlay on the works often nearly balanced the profits. It was also found neces- sary to modify the plan of operations by sinking shafts through the crumbling rock in order to reach the blue earth under the heaps of refuse covering it, and by driving underground galleries into the heart of the diamantiferous mass. Thus, from being an open quarry, Kimberley has been gradually converted into a mine in the strict sense of the term. The year 1881, the most successful of all, yielded to the commerce of the world crystals to the value of £4,160,000. But since then the industry has somewhat decreased in importance, chiefly in conse- quence of the reduced market price of the gems, due to their greater abundance. The declared value of the diamonds exported in 1886 was £3,504,000, and the total value down to the end of the year 1887 has been estimated at nearly £50,000,000, rtpresented by seven tons of diamonds, a far greater quantity than has been yielded by Brazil during the last hundred and fifty years. The propor- tion of diamonds to the actual amount of ground excavated and sorted is not more than one to eight millions. The most rigorous measures have been taken to prevent the theft of the precious stones, and in consequence of these regulations the prisons of Kimberley have often been filled to overflowing. Strikes also have occuried, and as in the mining districts of Europe have occasionally had to be sternly repressed. But here as elsewhere the system of large estates has at last prevailed. At first no one was allowed to hold more than two claims ; then anonymous societies bought up the allotments, and since 1887 a " syndicate," with its headquarters in London and Paris, and disposing of a capital of £15,000,000, has become the owner of the two most aluable mines at Kimberley and De Beer. The whole mining popula- tion thus consists exclusively of officials and labourers. When the mines were first opened the aborigines were excluded from the purchase of claims ; now these claims are accessible only to millionaires. The capital of the mining district, lying close to the mouth of the deepest diamantiferous pit, has already acquired the dimensions of a large town^ It is