Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1891-08-21
ABOUT VEIN FORMATION,


whole lot Of humbug in much Of so
called scientific writing about mini ng
geology and vein formation. There
is some reason to think, too, that
much-of the So called learning and
profundity Of those writer's is the
muddy mysticism that comes to
mushy brains all the time when they
venture away from shore.
The simple truth is that world
building is going on now as it has been
for geological ages. Heat, frost and
water are disintegrating the rocks and
wateris is washing down the resulting
sands and deposlting them into strata
that are hardening again into rock,
1t is the old process that has been go
ling on since the dawn Of Silurian
times. In fact we build up the entire
science of gcoloy upon what we see be-
! ing done all about us. We know that
certain causes produce certain effects,
and we believe that they have always
done so.
Why should mining geology or vein
formation be judged any differently
from other branches of geology? As
world-building is yet going on, why
should men suppose that the deposit Of
ore, long since ceased? We have all
seen hot springs, whose water are de-
posting iron, forming bog iron in
some marshy spot; we have all seen
drippingwater in old mine workings,
which deposits iron or lime or silica,
or may be all of them, on the wall or
ceiling or tloorof drift or Slopes. An
analysis of thermal waters shows that
any andall of the metals can be found
in them, and every chemist knows
that under favorable conditions such
as exist very often in the earth, these
metallic contents must be deposited,
just as the waters we have cited de-
posits their contents on the surface
where we can see them. The earth is
full Of water courses below the surface:
a miner who must fight water often
thinks it is too full And as the
waters in the veins circulate through
assures in the earth's crust as blood
does through the veins of the body,
they take up aud deposit metals. 1t
Is common law of chemistry that
7--i'.'' e.-e. thing goes into solution it
takes the place oran0Jner which is de-
posted, just as sulphurctted hydrogen
added to an acid solution precipitates
lead, copper, gold and silver. The
earth is a great chemical laboratory in
which nature, the great chemist, is
constantly doing what the weak init
ators In the workshops are trying to
do. why need we look any farther to
discoyera cause for ore deposits?
The waters that carry the silica and
and all the metals are circu-
latins ia the earth, and they must cir
culatcin assures and fractures and
bedding places because there is no
other place in which they can circu-
late. As they dissolve and take up
onemineral, they leave another in its
place, and in this way form ore de-
posits. This is not an assumption.
It is telling only what we can see and
prove is taking place every day.
Supposing that, as is generally the
case, there are parallel assures in the
rocks, may be a few feet and may be
many feet distant from each other
suppose that these assures approach
each other in their downward course.
md at some depth unite into one rs
iure. Suppose that they have other
assures branching Off from them at
various angles, and scores Of other lit |
lie assures branching of from them.
Sow if at some time in the past
waters containing metals In solution
lad percoiated through these assures.
md had dissolved portions of their
vail rocks and deposited silica and
ulphur and the metals in them.
lave they not formed the typiclai ns-
ure vein ore deposits? And would
.hese deposits have had a common
'rlgln, been formed at the same time.
md beeu here and there connected by
he iissures uniting, or by having cross
lssures or fracture planes, which
nlners call spurs or feeders, leading
rom one toauotherg And would moi
uch condition of affairs give rise to
endless litigation, under a modern
lpex law where different men own
heapeX of veins that are so united
'eneath the surface? Would not such
method of formation make the exls-
ence of parallel ore bodies quite pro-
able, and suggest 10 the practical
miner the necessity for frequent cross
utting, such as successful and prac-
ical miners do? In short is there any
Iecessity for hunting for some theory
i pre-cXisting veins to account for
What we can see about and around us
very day?
Peter Zimmerman or Kyle, who
drove a hack 10 Albuquer-
ue, years ago, but went TO Isl Paso,
where he soon became balloon