OCR Text |
Show THE DIAMOND FIELDS OF AFRICA. The diamond liclds of South Africa continue to attract throngs of eager fortune hunters whose efforts in the pursuit of wealth arc attended with varying degrees of success. A letter from a gentleman well known in this city describes the particular Uolconda where he is expending his energies as a ton aero lot with over five thousand diggers at work within its contracted limits. He is the Icee of a claim measuring seven and a half by twenty- ( two and a half feet of ground, which he has secured after threo lawsuits upon an agreement to pay lifly per cent, of the yield for tho privilege. On obtaining possession lie was at ouoe offered 250 cash for his right. The precious stones are fouud at a depth of twenty feet or more from the surface, th;:t is, when they aro found at all. One man who has worked industriously for over sis months in a choice location only found in all that time ten small stones, the whole worth not over 23; while another an-other man who was working within a few feet of him in live days dug out thirty-five diamonds worth 3VQ in the aggregate, and shortly afterward unearthed un-earthed a stone weighing one hundred aud seventy-two carats. It is all a lottery. lot-tery. Some make a fair living by very bard work, tome fail entirely, aud a few gain very rich prize-. Provisions at the diamond disgmg-s with the exception ex-ception of meal, are very bih. Potatoes Pota-toes sell lor ten dollars per bag; bread for twenty-live cents a loaf; onions ten to fifteen cents each, and watur fifty cents a barrel at the well-, which aie two miles away. We advice no man to go to the African diamond fields unless lie is quite wealthy, or at leat has money enough tn make him rich here, if well invested. |