Evening star., 1898-10-27
RAILWAY TO THE sun.
All the Gold In the Sea Would More
Than Build One.
From Tit-Bits.


From Tft-Bits.
1t is little realized that the sea is treas
ure house of gold, so incredibly rich as to
far exceed the widest dreams even of a
mad millionaire.
Although in every thirteen tons II only
holds one grain of pure gold. its bulk is so
vast that it's 100000 900 cubic miles of water
hold in solution gold of the value of fl,O25'-
600, 600 100000.
If this gold could be rescued and dis
tributed equally among all the inhabitants
of the earth each man, woman ana chilu
living would have a fortune of t6S3,3o3, or
roughly 81 tons of sovereigns. and would
enjoy the comfortable living income OF t52o
a week. or more than the annual income OF
five cabinet ministers of the first class
Let us coin in fancy the seas gold, ana
nile our myriads of sovereigns into one
stupendous column. Our tower of gold
standing on a base a quarter OF mile each
way. would soar into the clouds 10 a nelght
of IA S2S feet or 904 feet lower than the
summit of Mont Blanc. To demonsh ana
cart away our tower of sovereigns we
should require the services OF 20 horses
for every man, woman and child In the
world
If we make carpet of our marine SOW
ereigns we should have more than sufn-
cient to cover an area loo miles long ana
1873 miles wide; in fact, to plate WIN
sovereigns the whole of Great Britain and
Ireland, Holland Belgium and Portugal,
with a remnant Of over 5000 square miles
of gold to spare.
With our golden treasure we could make
a girdle Of sovereignS around the equator
nearly eight miles in width, or IS wide as
from the Thames to Edmonton or south
ward to the outskirts of Croydon.
Similarly we could construct roadway
to the moon 1854 yards wide, along which
$50 carriages might be driven abreast In
comfort.
We could make a railway track of gold to
bridge the 81 725, 600 miles which divide us
from the sun. Our golden track would be
liz feet wide; and If In 1924, when George
/. had still three years to reign, an engine
had started on its long journey from earth
to sun, and had raced night and day over
it's yellow track at the rate OF sixty miles
an hour, it would only reach its destina-
ton as these lines are being printed.
AS a final fight of astronomical fancy let
us construct two rails Of sovereigns. each
2h inches wide. and on this track let US
take a journey to Neptune, 2,753, 3,OO0.00
miles away.
We should have quite sufficient sover-
eigns for this purpose; but, journeyfng
hight and day at sixty miles an hour. 1t
would take us 6.242 years to reach Nep-
tLre by which time 1t would be too late
to think of the return journey.
To have completed our journey today,
we ought to have started nearly 1000 years
before the Deluge, according to recognized
chronology. We should In this way have
escaped the flood, at any rate.
With our treasure of the sea we could
buy the United Kingdom, with its land.
houses, and all its accumulated wealth of
every kind, $1,000 times over; and We could
furnish our national revenue for the next
5000 coo years, allowing for reasonable
growth; in fact, single minutes income
from our treasure, If carefully invested,
would be sufficient to meet our entire ma
tioral expenditure for a year.
All the gold current today throughout the
world, If collected together, would only
90 nf mob nfn
myriad sea sovereigns. and IL the same
amount of gold could be produced by our
mints every year 1t would take them
1,35s, $50 years to mint a pile as large as
M,