Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1885-10-31
The Mines Around Custer.
Continued from our last.
VEIN FILLING.

| 'h"i''Si III Wis 'Ssuc OH NeiH IlliluS
Well, the time has come, and it finds us
in poor condition to tackle a subject OF
this kind, and if We had not promised
we would not do it, for it is hard sub
iect to write on. Our head aches and
yet the subject requires the closest APP
plication of thought We realize that
We are plunging into an ocean the
depth, extent and boundary shores OF
which no man can tell. We are treading
a labyrinth, with little else to guide us
save the faculty by which we are dis
tinguished from the brute creation, our
reason. For when the changes and up
heavals that have marked the ayes pass
Ell occurred, you and were not there to
witness it. We have at best but cir
cumstantial evidence, but by long ex-
perience, close contact with the earth,
the rocks and ores and by close observa-
tion we can now say we have learned a
little. And our wiset scientists in view
Of the vast sea which il marked by
them as the unknown, can only say we
have learned little We know some
thing of what now exists and having
learned a little, only little, Of the
laws of chemistry which includes
electricity, we can begin to reason from
what is, to what has been. and from
what has been to what may be again,
guided by what we know of these
undertaking laws of chemistry. For
instance, we know by a study Of these
laws how to make all the acids and
alkalles that are used. We know that
what we can make artificial must exist
naturally, for we have taker it from
nature, and there is nothing in the
combination Of chemicals that we can
contrive but what the same exists i'm the
laboratory Of nature. And as we are daily
discovering new combinations, SO we
may conclude there are thousand, ave
million combinations in nature which
We have not yet discovered, and when
we have discovered them all, we will
then understand all about vein filling.
For AS far as we can see it is chemical
and electrical affinity that determines
and governs the whole business.
Many years ago when we first COM
menced mining we were taught that
veins were filed by molten mass that
was forced up like lava in volcano
causing and filling all the cracks and
assures in the earth. We believed il
then, and 1t took us Il year TO explode
that theory and to prove that it was a
great mistake. 1t happened in this
way. We were prospecting for gold in
1861. when We came upon what We
miners call good indications. The soil
on the side of the mountain was reden-
cd with the oxide of iron and here and
there in the porphyretic granite were
groupings Of quartz more or less honey.
combed and the cavities containing to
some extent oxide Of iron. This was
sure indication of vein, it was then
and is to-day, and we dug there. The
vein was small and the wall rock was
hard and we had to blast out good
deal Of II To get little ore but that
little was high-grade, and we made some
money out of it. But that part has
nothing TO do with the subject in hand.
However, before we got through
we sunk pretty deep shaft and we had
pretty good chance to test the volcanic
theory right there. Working on that
theory as we descended into the noun.
tain we began to look for indications Of
the great heat, but we saw none, and
the first thing We struck was pyrtes of
iron and soon our whole vein contained
nothing else. except lit is understood it
was still rich in gold. But that pyrites,
how did it get there. Certainly not by
the action of intense heat, but on the
contrary it could not have remained in
that condition had any great heat been
present. For pyrites Of iron is compos-
ed of (if we recollect rightly "a per cent
of iron and As per cent of sulphur, (or
about that, we are not fresh in our read
ing and have no time now to hunt it
up). We remember as if it were yester-
day how we sat on the side of that
mountain long after the sun had gone
down with that piece of pyrites in
our hand, thinking, and this was the
way we reasoned, and this was the con-
clusion we came to. Great heat and
sulphur are incompatible, and even at a
slight heat the sulphur would be
volatiized and If the heat was intense
the iron instead Of being in cube form
would be found as molten iron always is
found, globuar. There could have been
no such heat here, and we must
look to some other principle and some
other theory to account for the filling of
this vein. Just then we felt like saving
TO the old masters what the fsherman's 8
boy said to his dady, as the story goes
The old man before retiring put the
tilier in the boys hands and told him to
steer for the north star, (pointing it OUT
but soon the boy fell asleep at his post
and the vessel veered around aud hon