Later the pits were fenced in. After forty years of inactivity the search for diamonds in the De Beers Mine was resumed; the Kimberley Mine was turned into a tourist attraction. An open-air museum was established nearby. Only on the outskirts of town did a few of the smaller mines remain unfenced and ungaurded. One of these was called Otto's Kopje. It had its own diminished version of an open pit and several vertical shafts at varying distances around it. The shafts did not have any broken ground near them to warn you of what was ahead. You just came upon them: perfectly square, black holes in the ground, each as big as a room, and apparently bottomless. At night, in bed, I would occasionally be racked out of sleep by a sudden involuntary step into that black space.
- Excerpt: Dan Jacobson, Arguing with the Dead. pp 175 Granta # 60 [Unbelievable].
