Some enterprising ladies own Scotch carts, which they send to the wash-ups in which their husbands and brothers are interested, and get the small pebbly refuse that has been hastily looked over at the sorting-table. This is brought to the house and sorted over by them more carefully for the tiny diamonds that have been overlooked in the haste of sorting out larger prizes. A few of the ladies dressed themselves on the money they made at this work. It tires the back and eyes, to be sure, but not any more than other woman's work. CHAPTER TWELVE. The diamond fields of South Africa, though of recent discovery, have eclipsed all others in the world, both in richness and extent. One of the first diamonds found, worth 125,000 dollars, named the "Star of South Africa," is owned by the Countess of Dudley, its weight being 46.5 carats. The colour of the Kimberley diamonds makes them much more valuable than those of Dutoitspan or Bulfontein. Those found in the latter mines are larger, but yellow or slightly coloured; all the mines seem inexhaustible. The largest diamond ever found in South Africa came from the Dutoitspan mine in 1885 and weighed 404 carats, but was spotted and of a yellowish tinge. Every man interested in these mines expects and hopes daily to "go one better." American products are liked, our carriages and heavy wagons wearing better in the hot, dry climate than those of English manufacture. Corn comes from home to these shores in ship-loads, and the American light and strong furniture is liked. Mark Twain's and Bret Harte's writings are universally read, and the South Africans say that all they need to open up the country's interests is about "twenty-five ship-loads of live Yankees." Some of the houses are furnished beautifully with American furniture. One lady's bedroom I entered had blue silk and lace coverlet and hangings to an elegant black walnut bed, marble-topped dressing bureau, and the remainder of the room furnished in keeping; but there is no satisfaction in furnishing a house richly or dressing elaborately, on account of the great dust storms. They come up suddenly, without the slightest warning, obscuring the light of day. Solid moving columns of red sand, resembling water-spouts, are whirled round and round and blow like a tornado over the town. These sand storms are quite a feature of Kimberley and a very disagreeable one, but they clear the air of any pestilence. The climate, though scorchingly hot during the middle of the day, is otherwise a very pleasant and healthy one.