At the Bultfontein Mine I descended to the bottom of the open workings
in one of the iron buckets, used for bringing up the "blue ground" to
the surface. This is rather a perilous adventure. To go down by a wire
rope, some five or six hundred feet perpendicular into the bowels of the
earth with lightning rapidity, standing up in an open receptacle, the
top of which does not approach your waist, oscillating like a pendulum,
while you are holding on "like grim death" by your hands, is something
more than a joke. It certainly ought not to be attempted by anyone who
does not possess a cool head and tolerable nerve.

Here I saw multitudes of natives employed,--as afterwards in the De
Beer's, the Kimberley, and other diamond mines,--with pickaxes, shovels,
and other tools, breaking down the ground at the sides of the mine,
perched at various spots, and many a giddy height. Diamond mining at
Kimberley is altogether a very wonderful specimen of the development of
a new industry. In this mine I had explained to me the various
processes, by which diamonds are discovered in the rocky strata which is
being constantly dug out of the enormous circular hole, constituting it.

I also visited the celebrated De Beer's Mine. This vast mine, where some
thousands of workmen, white and coloured, are employed, is carried on
much in the same way as the Bultfontein, as far as the different
processes are concerned, of treating the material in which the diamonds
are found. It is much richer, however, in "blue ground," and
consequently far more valuable results are obtained from it. For
instance, the average value of each truck load of stuff from the
Bultfontein is said to be about 8s., while from the De Beer's it is
28s. or 30s. The latter mine is now worked underground, in the same way
as copper and coal mines are worked in England. Excellent arrangements
are made for the protection and well-being of the native workmen,