The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-11-03
What Sand May DO.

In the entlre Oldte.
What Sand May DO.
Not many years ago, the mercantile
world of Prussia was greatly excited by
a mysterious robbery, which for an un-
usually long time puzzled the acute
police of that kingdom. The Royal
Bank had sent a box with a hundred
thousand dollars from Berlin to Mum
ster. Upon its arrival, the chest looked
as if no strange hand had touched it;
but, when opened, a package of thous-
and dollars was missing, and its place
was filed up with sand. In vain did
officials and detectives endeavor to dis
cover trace of the ingenious robber.
A renowned geologist accidentally heard
of the difficulty, and at once suggested
that some of the sand should be sent to
his study. An hours examination en-
abled him to state with tolerable GER
tainty the locality from which the sand
was probably taken. Thereupon samples
were sent him from all the stations
through which the box had passed, and
he decided upon the very town where
the robbery must have been committed.
With this cue the detectives went once
more to work, and soon the thief was
discovered and convicted.
Sand is at once the most common and
the most varied of apparently worthless
things. In every valley and plain, on
the coast Of vast continents and along
the banks of tiny brooks, water is for
ever rolling up and down countless
grains of sand. This universal sand con-
sists in the main everywhere Of the same
substance, the well-known mineral
which in all parts of the world and in
all languages Of men appears under its
old German name of quartz. 1t owes its
vast distribution to its hardness; for it
is the hardest Of all stones, surprising
even the hardest substance known in
the vegetable and animal kingdoms
the enamel of our teeth. Hence the
ludicrous complaint of Goethe's Werth-
er, who writes to his beloved Lotte -
"Only, no more sand on your letters
In moment of rapture | carried your
note to my lips, and my teeth suffered
sadly" All other admixtures are hence
soon reduced to almost impalpable pow
der by its superior power, and only
enough is left to give to the sand of each
locality some slight peculiarly of form
and color Thus, where porphyry pre-
walls, the sand will assume a fair pink
hue, while the bright scales of mica
make it known as silver-sand.
Nature, however, allows none of her
children to drift idly through the world,
but makes them work hard and perse-
veringly for her Master. Hence quartz
also, hard as it is, and indissoluble by
any known fluid, must finally change its
form and yield to the universal solvent,
water. Wherever sand appears, it is
kept in perpetual motion, and this in
cessant friction reduces it finally into
almost invisible particles, which are dis
solved in water. Plants also, when de-
composing, restore to the earth the
small portion of quartz which has given
them their strength; and, as quartz can,
besides, be eliminated from clay, it cir
culates, after all, in spite of its appa-
rently indestructible hardness, through
all the realms of Nature. But, when it
is thus, as it were, dissolved, it no long.
er retains the form of small, irregular
grains, such as we see in sand, but APP
pears, as far rs shape and color are con.
cerned, clad in forms of perfect beauty.
II is one of the many marvellous laws
which rule our earth that solid bodies
assume fixed forms; wherever they find
rest-crystallize, as we call it their
shape depends, not on their surround
ings, but on permanent laws. Thus,
whenever quartz changes into crystal, it
appears with unfailing regularity as a
pyramid Of six sides, or column with
six sides crowned by pyramid. Nor
does this uniformity appear merely to
the general outline: all the angles cor
respond with the utmost fidelity. 1t
matters little whether the mass be large
or small; there may be but one column
or quite number joined together, and
the substance may appear dim and un-
attractive or clear and brilliant like
diamond-the six sides are never want
ing, the angles never vary, and, above
all, the point at the end of the crystal,
which is characteristic of quartz, is
never absent.
A curious feature connected with the
ordinary rock-crystal is the manner in
which it is formed. The largest and
cearest masses have been found in Ma
dagascar, where travellers report the ex-
istence of rocks measuring five and six
feet in diameter; but little is known |
with precision about them. In the Dau-
phine, however, and in Switzerland,
they are found in enormous masses In |
SO. called crystal-caves. One of the lat
ter, near the Grimsel Pass, and discov-
cred in 1920, was one hundred and
twenty feet deep, and at the largest
place ten feet wide. Here crystals OF