John Bull & co.; the great colonial branches of the firm: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa . ttle stone, and sold it for ;^500. It was thefirst Kimberley diamond. The news got abroad, and acrowd soon invaded the borders of the Vaal. Theysought and they found. In twenty-three years Kim-berley has yielded diamonds which have been sold in therough for the fabulous sum of ^^35,000,000. The lovelyCountess of Dudley possesses a diamond, called the Star of South Africa, valued at ^25,000. A few weeks before my visit to Kimberley, there hadbeen found a diamond of four hundred and twenty
John Bull & co.; the great colonial branches of the firm: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa . ttle stone, and sold it for ;^500. It was thefirst Kimberley diamond. The news got abroad, and acrowd soon invaded the borders of the Vaal. Theysought and they found. In twenty-three years Kim-berley has yielded diamonds which have been sold in therough for the fabulous sum of ^^35,000,000. The lovelyCountess of Dudley possesses a diamond, called the Star of South Africa, valued at ^25,000. A few weeks before my visit to Kimberley, there hadbeen found a diamond of four hundred and twenty-eightcarats. The De Beers Company sold it to an Indianprince for the pretty little sum of ;^i5,000. Companies have been started in the neighborhood,riches have been reaped, and Cape Colony, which twentyyears ago was at a very low ebb, now enjoys the greatestopulence. A few years later, Johannesburg, with itsgold mines, completed the fortune of this land, whichcompensates for the aridity of its surface by the wealththat lies underneath. Africa will lack bread and waterbefore it lacks eold and ?W^ 365 JOHN BULL & CO. 267 Under the guidance of Mr. Gardner F. Williams, anAmerican, the general manager, I visited the subter-ranean mines of De Beers and Kimberley; and near byI plunged my eyes into the depths of a pit, the surfaceof which is twenty acres and the depth three hundredfeet. In this pit negroes, like a swarm of black ants, dugand threw the precious mud into the tumbrils, whichwent off and emptied- their contents into the sand is sifted, it is sent to sheds and placedon tables, where workmen, under the surveillance oflynx-eyed watchers, search for diamonds with littlerakes, and throw them into locked tin boxes. These boxes are sent under escort to the office of thecompany, and there the diamonds are spread out andclassed by experts, according to their size, color, andpurity. These different groups are placed on tissuepaper on a table, where I saw ov
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