The daily gazette., 1879-10-10
Mother Earth's Treasure.
PROF. CUNNING ON THE FORMATION OF
GOLD AND SILVER.


GOLD AND SILVER.
Prof. Gurninx delivered tho lat of
his serie. Of interesting and Instructive
lectures last evening in the Board Of |
Trade room, and treated upon the for.
uation of Gold and Silver, with o Aes-
criptiOn OF the ConstOck Lode.
The Professor said in commencing that |
Emerson had remarked that . crab by |
the seaside was .. commonplace thing, |
but crab raised up and set in the Zodiac |
a. one OF the signs WAS near subhmity. |
1t WAS the same way with the subjects
of the lecture; gold or silver in the mint
OF Golfer 10 common place and unpootic,
but IN mother earth aud In the stages Of
it's coming there. 1t Is q thing full of
beauty and interest. 1t would be his
aim in this discourse to endeavOr TO
bring out those points of interest.
Gold was widely diversified through
nature. IL was to be found In meioOric
stones, It tshimmered 10 the milky way;
it was floating in the great deep; 1t lay
buried IN the heart of vast mountains.
at the task, and warming Ia the work
reveals a plan Of the ali-wlse God, that
IL full Of beauty. In q piece Of New
England granite, when 1t IL split open,
can be found small cavity, wherein Is
crystal aud perhaps Il, y drep Of water,
that has lain thus for centuries In It's
adamantine prison. 1t came from the
primeval sea that once rolled over the
earth; aud that sea was richer in nine
rails than ours. An eminent German
geOlOgist estimates that every ton of
cummOn seq water contains . small
atom Of gold. From this estimate 1t Is
reasonably computed that the ocean TO-
day contains eleven millions two hund
red thousand times AZ much gold a. has
been dug from tue earth during all time.
This naturally causes the question to
arise, how came IT, there? And science
ans wers positively. In a!mostlnfinitesi-
NAL atoms II once dwelt In the heaven.
and was filtered into the sea, through
the atmosphere, anu there existed either
alone or surrounded by sulphur. which
is the atmosphere of fmetals. How nature
got The gold from the ocean IL an inter
esting theme. The quantity OF gold to
each ton of water IL too small 10 be OBJ.
served: The point Of pin would more
than cOyer II. The silver Ia yelled In q
sulphate formed by suipharic acid. Now,
one thing that has been not d Is, that
natu.e profits, either by life or death.
Metals began to appear upon the earth's
surface on a great scale about the time
that life on q great scale appeared in the
ocean; and the result was as surprising
as the cause. The vegetable matter ap-
pearing in the seas would absorb the
gold and silver, which would disappear
| from the water. These weeds etc. would
| often gather in moss and, dying, dri II
away with their precious burden, or drop
o the bottom. Any rock or shore, rich
with the drlfungs OF these weeds Is also
rich in gold and other metals. Thus, the
natural mining of the waters Of the great
deep has been going on, and 1t is q
wonder that the precious metals have
uOt been exhausted long ago.
| But this is not the only met h0d Of this
| kind employ ed by nature. In many
cases dead animal, floating in the wa
| ter. comes in contact with one OF these
| atoms. The vital air that attaches the
| sulphric acid to the silver Ia attracted t.
dead body and commences work Of de
composition upou it. The silver, mean
while, released from the sulphur, drop
to the bottom. 1t is the same way with
| gold " hich Is often connected with al
| atom of iron. Tue vital air leaves t,dis
connecting the two, and tho particle Ol
gold thus released, falls to the bottom
| OF the sea. These forces have been al
| work for all time.
The lecturer now turned his attention
to the gold in the rocks and spoke of the
great region of California, where the
work of time on the mountains had
| made the greatest known field tor placer
| mining. In the early days of California,
| according to the calculations of ge0lO-
gists before the work of creation was
| thoroughly done, a volcanic freak cut a
deep canon, in tho central part, extend.
| ing east and west, and in Time river
flowed down it, bearing gold--gold that
had been diopped upon the land when
when it was the bed OF the primevai sea
Later, q volcanic eruption caused the
canon 10 fill completely with lava, a,frOm
he mouth Of the river far back to The
sou CO. In time other riv formed anC
" u strange happening, stream flowed
down on either side OF he tilled-up rivel
bed. Neither at them took the former
course, for the lava had hardened alnOs
like a,iamantine. On either side The
rock was soft and easily cut by the water
After many centuries these Two ostreams
following the course of the solid river OF
lava, but flowing close on either side
mpletely wore away the softer rocl
leaving the famous "Table Mountain
with precipitous SIDES aid devious wind
lngs after the very form of the river
Who's, course moulded it. At Sonora
California, this ridge has been partly
tuuneled at the base just where 1t II u
be supposed the old river ran, and yot
find tue surmise that river was there
to be correct, for every where are to bt
found rounded pebbles, as the watel
washed them cycles ago. And allarount
among fos Ills and bones, not Of this age
vom find grains Of gold. When OBJ
serving this, The mind cam 1t h. !.
going back to the far past age when tb,
ocean rolled over the earth and the sam'
natural forces were busy mining thu
precious metal from the deep aud drop.
ping l. here.
| nj AlnUth-KrHC In kDat
second in the ocean, third In vegetab
sediments aud last iu the rOcks-the lee
tnrer said he would proceed and depic
another phase in this interesting work
Ir was The desert ting of how natur,
came to deeply bu y the precious metal
deem in her bosom. During the "cooling
Off process in the early days OF creation
the earth cracked, and huge rents an.
fisures were left gaping open. 70 III
these cracks she had three plans. TIT
first plan was by washings from above
and In far al precious metals are con
c.rned that was barren. The second Wa
hv lava thrown up from below, and, II
nrecious metals, that WAS equally barren
The third was by water, and was dom
in a way that knits up the crack AM
; leaves a precious treasure inside.
: MI. Davidson, in Nevada, furnishes
good example OF this kind. Inc csarac
ter of the mountain shows that counties
centuries ago 1t was huge volcani
rock thrown up BY an e ernpnon IN IN n ~
was as inclined plane of about 40 degrees
A long time after this huge rO3k becani
. fixed. there came another eruption and
, mass of lava was thrown up against tn
inclined side Of Mt. Davidson, and tber
hardened. These two rocks were forme'
. of entirely different kinds, and ~nef