THE GRAND OLD DAYS OF THE DIAMOND FIELDS

xiii prelims + 192pp. Frontispiece and profusely illustrated throughout with 59 b/w photographs and illustrations.

Red cloth boards with black titling. The end papers are beige in colour. Internally, pages are clean with no foxing. The binding is tight. A very good copy.

CONTENTS:

Dedication, contents, list of illustrations, Foreword, Introduction

Part One: Memories of the Old Days; The Great Discovery; Diamondities, and the Vaal-ward Trek; Arrival at Du Toits Pan; First Glimpse of the Vaal; Rival Claimants; Exodus From the River to the Dry Diggings;

Part Two: Discovery of the Great Mines; Early Methods of Winning the Diamond; Some Curious Happenings; More Curious Happenings; Bultfontein Mine, Jumped and Old De Beers Found; Colesburg Kopje Mine Discovered; Colesberg Kopje Mine Rushed; Marvellously Rich Finds; Advent of the Fair Sex, and Some Amusing Incidents and Legends; Wesselton, Jagersfontein and Koffyfontein Mines; The Premier Mine near Pretoria; Diamond Production, The Latest Phase; Old Coaching Days and the Coming of the Railway; Some Remarkable South African Diamonds.

Part Three: The Giants of Those Days; Joseph Benjamin Robinson, Cecil John Rhodes; Alfred Beit.

George Beet writes in Chapter 1: Memories of the old days, that he has often been asked to record some of his experiences of those early boisterous diamond mining times, and of the speeding of the years on the South African Diamond Fields. He said that whilst much has been written, a great deal remains to be told, and as "one of the very early-comers now left, I must yield to the wishes of my friends while the urge or retrospection is still strong within me, and do my best to serve up a generous "soopje" of '70 vintage. Across the mind flash many crowded and pleasurable recollections of hitherto unrecorded events, associations and achievements.. I shall now embark on the sea of memory."