MARTIN RATTLER. 257
‘
“Thrue, boy, the Baron Fagoni feeds well, bekase

he’s the cock o’ the roost; but the poor Naygurs are
not overly well fed, and the eraturs are up to their
knees in wather all day, washing di’monds; so they
suffer much from rheumatiz and colds. Och, but it’s
murther intirely, an’ I’ve more than wance felt in-
clined to fill their pockets with di’monds and _ set
them all free! Jist look, now; there they are, hard
at it.”

As he spoke they arrived at the mine. The ground
in the vicinity was all cut up and dug out to a con-
siderable depth, and a dozen Negroes were standing
under a shed washing the earth, while others were
engaged in the holes excavating the material. While
Martin watched them his friend explained the pro-
cess,

The different kinds of soil through which it is
necessary to cut before reaching the diamond deposit
are, first, about twenty feet of reddish sandy soil;
then about eight feet of a tough yellowish clay;
beneath this lies a layer of coarse reddish sand,
below which is the peculiar soil in which diamonds
are found. It is called by the miners the cascalho,
and consists of loose gravel, the pebbles of which are
rounded and polished, having at some previous era

been subject to the action of running water. The
17