Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-11-20
a Little Sober Thought.

declared that gold is found in every
patch oi alluvial formation the world
over
1t l. Il maxim among olden time
/ Their" gold EXISTS. OF course the plain
Inference that although gold rmrti-
Giles may not he di>ccrnablc 10y the I'M
aided eye in every mass Of black sand
1t nevertheless is incorporated to Il
greater or less extent with the black
sand and could be extracted if proper
means were employed. There is not a
stream putting into Puget Sound but
is bringing down gold-imprcgnatcd
sands from the surrounding noun
tain range,
The plateau upon which Olympia
stands, is, geologically speaking, made
land; every particle OF which has
been brought down by the DcSchutes
and deposited in the form or after the
manner of vast delta.
Now the ultimate origin of this
earthly deposition was the hill coun-
try along the base of the Cascade
range. Every drop of rain water, be
it never so clear, is bearing down to a
lower lever its own quota of earthly
and mineral particles worn away from
the everlasting rocks which rib the
crust of the earth or form the actual
framework of the mountain systems.
Gold is still mined in North and
South Carolina in the same districts
where it was discovered two hundred
years ago.
When people tlocked to the gold
fields of California in the great rush
that convulsed the world, they
trampled unwittingly over the gold
fields of Utah, Colorado, Nevada,
Montana and Idaho, as rich and in
exhaustible as those in the Eldorado
they were SO zealously seeking. Every
year, nay, and it might be said every
month in the year, rich discoveries
are made in all these States, and
bonanza " strikes" are reported rival
ing the gold-producing districts of
any part OF the world. But it is in
accordance with the trend of human
nature to suppose that the richest
mines are the farthcrest from home
and, as general thing, in the most
inhospitable regions of the earth.
The late rush to Alaska strikingly
illustrates the curious trend OF thought
in the human mind to which we have
alluded. Why men will strive to
reach the most distant and inacccs-
sible gold fields in the world when the
precious metal is all around them at
home, is hard to divine. Every now
and then we hear of rich strikes and
phenomenal finds in many old worm
out gold-fields where such things
would be least suspected by the tradi-
tional gold hunter. The late discover
les in the Cripple Creek districts are
instances that exactly illustrate the
point we are urging.
Who knows but that there are gold
mines in our own State of Washing
ton rivaling those of any other coun-
try in the world?
a 1.-THE of the money spent in get
ting, to Alaska, and lost after get
ting there to keep soul and body to-
gether, might suffice to make such
discoveries in our own mountain
ranges as would astonish the world.
There is a curious metallurgical
principle which manifests itself from
time to time in all the older gold-min-
ing districts, a principle that savors
strongly at first thought, of "gold re-
production; that is, that the precious
metal has some underlined power of re-
producing itself after the lapse of
years where it had been formerly so
mined as to leave the impression that
there was no more of the metal left.
Old placer diggings in California
which were supposed to have been ex-
hausted years ago, are now found to
be replenished to such an extent that
they afford "pay dirt" to the prospec-
tor.
OF course, it is not to be thought
that the gold has actually reproduced
itself, for the truth is that the winter
floods have only replenished the bars
in the streams where the original
miners worked a quarter of a century
ago. Similar discoveries are being re-
ported from the Frazier river and Car
iboo gold fields where gold is again
found SO plentiful as to attract the
notice of veteran prospectOrs. Coarse
gold has been found no further away
from Olympia than in the Black Hills,
some ten or fifteen miles west. The
streams and gulches there have been
prOspected to some extent but no
thorough search has ever been under
taken and hence the common opinion
that none of the precious metals exist
there in paying quantities.
1t was not the present intention
to write a tiresome homily, but
merely to set forth existing facts
which might peradventure suggest
some useful ideas to those who may
be inclined to heed wholesome advice.
Now let us contrast two lines of action
and carefully note the candid infer
ence. Barely four months of the year