Before describing the present mode of diamond extraction followed in the important mines, I will commence with these “River Washings,” where, in their primitive simplicity, can be seen the modes of work and the simple machinery long since discarded in the large centres of the industry. The drift or so-called “river washings” present a very interesting phase of diamond industry. The work is carried on in the primitive fashion adopted in the early days of diamond discovery, every man working on his own little claim, assisted by a few natives, and employing primitive machinery (Fig. 1). The chief centre of the Vaal River washings is about 30 miles to the north-west of Kimberley, at a place called Klipdam No. 2. There was originally a Klipdam a few miles further, and here the miners congregated, but the exhaustion of their claims made them migrate to others not far off and reported to be richer. Here, accordingly, they re-erected their iron houses and called it Klipdam No. 2. It is a mistake to speak of “river washings.” The diamantiferous deposits are not special to the old or recent river bed, but appear to be alluvial deposits spread over a large tract of country by the agency of water, which at some period of time subsequent to the filling up of the volcanic pipes planed off projecting kopjes from the surface of the country and scattered the debris broadcast over the land to the north-west of Kimberley. The larger diamonds and other heavy minerals would naturally seek the lowest places, corresponding with the river bed, past and present. The fact that no diamonds are found in the alluvial deposits near Kimberley may perhaps be explained by supposing that the first rush was sufficiently strong to carry the debris past without deposition, and that deposition occurred when the stream slackened speed. At Klipdam No. 2 the diamantiferous earth is remarkably like river gravel, of a strong red colour--quite different from the Kimberley blue ground--and forms a layer from 1 to 8 feet thick, lying over a “hard pan” of amygdaloidal trap, the melaphyre of the Kimberley mines. [Illustration: FIG. 1. RIVER WASHINGS AT KLIPDAM.] [Illustration: FIG. 2. PLAN OF THE KIMBERLEY DIAMOND MINES. To face p. 10.]