, 1878-04-12
Accident in Discovery.

81, Many of our most important inventio
ca and discoveries owe their origin to
ed most trivial circumstances; from I
r. simplest causes the most important
he fects have ensued The following are
r., few called at random. The trial of tv
III robbers before the Court of Assizes OF 4
le Basses- Pyrenees accidentally led to
most interesting archaeological discover
Ie The accused, Rivas shoemaker, al
l. Bellier weaver, by armed attacks on II
l. highways and frequent burglsries, ma
Is spread terror around the neighborhood
j. Sisteron. The evidence against thel
u was clear; but no traces could be OF
> tanned of the plunder, until one of til
z men gave clue to the mystery. Rlva
in his youth had been shepherd BIO.
near that place, and knew the legend o
: the Trou d. Argent, cavern ON one
the mountains with sides so precipitou
, as to be almost inaccessible, and which
no one was ever known to have reached
The Commissary of Police of SlsterOn
after extraordinary labor, succeeded IN
scaling the mountain, and penetrated
to the mysterious grotto, where he dis
covered an enormous quantity of plunder
of every description. The way having
been once found, the vast cavern was
explored by sauants, and their researches
brought to light number of medals of
the third century, flint hatchets, orna-
mental pottery, and the remains of rumi-
nants of enormous size. These interest
ing discoveries, however, obtained no in
diligence for the accused GnadvertenD
pioneers of science, who were sentenced
to twenty years. hard labor.
The discovery of gold in Nevada was
made by some Mormon immigrant in
1850. Adventures crossed the Sierras
and set up their sluice- boxes in the
but it was gold they were after,
and they never suspected the existence
Of silver, nor knew it when they saw it.
The blush stuff which was 80 abundant
and which was silver ore, interfered with
their operations and gave them the great.
est annoyance. Two brothers named
Grosch possessed more Intelligence than
their felow-workers, and were the real
discoverers of the Comstock lode; but
one of them died from a pickaxe wound
in tho foot, and the other was frozen to
death in the mountains. Their secret
died with them. When at last, in the
early part of 1859, the surface groupings
Of the lode were found, they were worked
for the gold they contained, and the
silver was thrown out as being worthless
Yet this lode since 1860 has yielded 9
large proportion of all the silver pro
duced throughout the world. The silver
mines OF Potosi were discovered through
the trivial circumstance of an Indian &C
cidentally pulling up ashrub, TO the root
of which were attached some particles 0
the precious metal.
During the Thirty Years War in Ger
many, the little village of Coserow in tn
island of Usedom, on the Prussian borde
of the Baltic, was sacked by the contend
ing armies, the villagers escaping to th
hills to save their lives. Among then
was a simple pastor named Schwerder
and his pretty daughter Mary. Whel
the danger was over, the villagers founC
themselves without houses, food O
money. One day, we are told, Mar.
went up the Streckeberg to gather black
berries; but soon afterwards she rar
back joyous and breathess to her father
with two shining pieces of amber each o
very great size. She told her father thai
near the shore the wind had blown ava,
the sand from vein of amber; that sht
straightway broke of these pieces with
stick; that there was an ample store o
the precious substance; and that sht
had covered it over to conceal her secret
The amber brought money, food, cloth
ing and comfort; but those were super
stitious times, and legend goes tha
poor Mary was burned for witchcraft
At the village of Stumen, amber was ac
cidentally found by rustic who was for
lunate enough to turn some up with hi
plow.
Accidents have prevented as we'll a.
caused tho working mines. At the timt
workmen were about to commence opera
tions on rich gold mine in the Japanes,
province of Tskungo, a violent storm O
thunder and lightning burst over them
and the miners were obliged to seek she
ter elsewhere. These supersttious peo
pie, imagining that the tutear god ant
protector of the spot, unwilling to hav,
the bowels of the earth thus rifled, hs,
raised the storm to make them sensibl,
of his displeasure, desisted from al
further attemps to work the mine.
A cooper i'll Carnioa having one even
ing placed new tub under droppins
spring, in order to try if it would hol,
water, when he came in the mornin.
found it 50 heavy that he could hardl,
move it. At first the supers,itious no
tlons that are apt to possess the minds o
the ignorant made him suspect that hi
tub was bewitchei; but at last perceivin,
a shining fluid at the bottom, he went (,
Laubach, and showed it to an apothecary
who Immediately dismissed him with ,
small gratuity, and bid him bring somc
more OF the same stuff whenever he