Identifier: sciencerecordcom1874beac (find matches)
Title: The Science record; a compendium of scientific progress and discovery
Year: 1872 (1870s)
Authors: Beach, Alfred Ely, 1826-1896
Subjects: Technology Industrial arts
Publisher: New York, Munn
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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there is no mistaking. When such a find is made, the shout of joy rings outand loud hurrahs go circling through the camp. Picksand shovels are dropped, the sifter is left at rest, and everydirt-pile is dotted with eager lookers, anxious to see whois the lucky man, all giving the diggings the appearanceof a prairie-dog village, or a colony of meerkats perchedon their mounds. This is a dry digging, the wet diggings being alongthe now famous Vaal River, where the first discoverieswere made. The story of the discovery of diamondshere may be summed up in a few words. The first onewas found in the Hope Town Division of Cape Colony,near the Orange River, by the child of a Dutch Boer, orfarmer. Ignorant of its value, the children used it as aplaything until one Schalk van Niekerk, a neighboringfarmer, saw it, and struck by its lustre and weight, offeredto buy it. The childs mother laughed at the idea of sell-ing a stone, and gave it to him. The stone passed through GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY, 537
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several hands, reaching at last a Dr. Atherstone, of Gra-hamstown, who on examination pronounced it a veritablediamond. Its weight was 22 carats. Soon after an 8-carat 53& SCIENCE RECORD. stone was found in the same division, and more extensive,search was begun. No particular stir or excitement re-sulted, however, until the famous Star of South Africa be-came known, in 1869. This rare gem of 83 carats wasbought from a native sorcerer by the quasi-discoverer ofthe first-found diamond. Search for others was increasedand with such success that a rush set in from all quar-ters in the early part of 1870, and in a short time the banksof the Vaal, the north branch of the Orange, were coveredwith busy diggers. The year after, the richer and moreextensive dry diggings were discovered in the open, al-most desert country between the Vaal and the Orange,and since then new diamond-bearing localities have beenfound almost daily. The gem-bearing gravel lies amongst huge basaltic boul-ders, the r

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