The Osceola times., 1877-07-28
The FIXTURE Of Gold.

hard blow at the hands Of one Of the most
eminent geologists of Europe, Herr
Suess, professor of geology at the uni
versity Of Vienna, who has recently pub
lished work upon "The Future of
Gold "-Die Zukunf des Codes A r,c
ognized European authority in his special
sphere, he not only has aimed in this able
and invaluable book to garner and ar
range the historical facts and the statis-
tics of the production of gold, but also
to supply the previously lacking infor
nation about money-which is not
small, even among those who most affect
special knowledge on the subject-and at
the same time to apply clearly formula
ted laws to the economic phenomena
witnessed.
From the standpoint of the geologist,
Prof Suess pronounces as demonstra-
ted fact that, taking all the gold ever ex-
cavated from the remote Egyptian era of
Rameses III. down to the latest discov-
cries, there has not been enough of it
uneartbed to justify the general estab-
lishment of the single-money standard of
gold contended for by certain school OF
writers in Europe, and so little reason
does he find for that demand that he OPP
poses to it the strong probability thi
mankind within several centuries will
have exhausted all the earths gold re-
sources.
The present stock of gold, increased by
all which may be hereafter extracted,
estimated at anv maximum that can be
intelligently assumed, Herr Suess main
tsins, must be, relatively, so small that
we cannot nationally escape from the
conclusion that, in the course of few
hundred years, there will net be nearly
enough gold at the disposition of man
kind for money uses : From this con-
clusion there is no escape, he atlirms,
when one, calmly surveying the earth,
notes the small extent of it which geo.
logically affords the least hope of furnish
ing future gold fields at all adequate to
supply the increasing demand for this
precious metal. And it is upon this
point the work of this German scientist
is singularly valuable.
He says that the precious metals have
three separate sources which mark the
geological transformation of their COM
ponent matter in the outer strata of the
earth. In the first class, gold and silver
are found minutely disseminated in the
rocks. Thus. gold is found blended with
platinum, and other metals, as at Mini
Tapil, in the Oural mountains; but so
few are the localities, and so small the
product, that this source is not to be
taken into account in estimating the
worlds resources for maintaining
a metallic money system. A second
source he places in the seams or assures
which have resulted from volcanic
forces, and TO which belong the famous
bonanza mines of Nevada, the lodes or
veins of New Granada and of the Carpa-
THAN mountains, also of Victoria and
Queensland, and some of the "gangues"
OF New Zealand. The third or last
source are the placer and fluvial gold
fields Of California, Australia, New Zeal
and, and the Oural and Riverine dis
tricts of northern Asia, the gold depos-
its of which have had their origin in the
chemical operation wrought by the air,
together with the mechanical displace.
ment and removal affected by water.
These ever active, powerful Transforming
agents discomposed the elder strata, and
transported them to the beds in which
they are now found, and which are worked
by hydraulic processes
Herr Suess places the aggregate pro-
duction of gold from lS4S to the close of
1876 at about s3,25O, 900, 900, of which
all but 1891 ,000, 900 was drawn exclu.
sively from the last mentioned class of
sources, which consequently must be re-
gar'led as the only substantial field of
gold-supply in the future. In this rela-
ton, the geological lesson, according to
this eminent savant is, that therroduction
of gold must depend essentially upon
those parts of the earth where, for GER
tain time, the primitive rocks were ex-
posed to decomposition, and consequently
as those sections are relatively verv in
considerable, and so much of them have
already been exhausted of their gold,
that we must reach the conclusion that
at this very time, "more than half of all
the gold which can ever be extracted
possibly, from the earth by human labor,
ingenuity, and perseverance has already
come into the hands of man." and further,
that the period of ultimate exhaustion
must come with the greater rapidity
because of the intensely greater scale
with which mining is now carried on by
aid of modern improved machinery and
processes for extracting and deducing
ores to bullion, together with the great
depths that are now reached and ex-
plored. Therefore, the period at which
there must come a permanent, substantial
diminution of the annual discovery of
gold, with a constant reduction of the
amount of that metal lett uncon.umed i'm
the arts, and in handling, must be regar
ded as approaching 80 close as the near
future. OF course, as gold becomes
scarce and dear, it will be more and more
difficult to transact the increasing bust.
nes OF the world with it, and some sub
stitute will have to be found. On the
other hand, though silver, as Prof. Suess
maintains, is mainly extracted from
eruptive veins and assures, those sources
are so numerous and widely spread over
the earth, and relatively so large and
rich that the supply may be confidently
regarded as more uniailing than the
sources of gold; and as likely TO extend
to far remoter future. At the same
time, great progress is to be anticipated
in the methods Of extraction from all the
ores OF silver.
Therefore, dispassionately regarded,
from the purely scientific point of view,
Herr Suess does Dot hesitate TO pro-
uouuce not only ag.@p itv of
establishing q dnl -
W.