The age-herald., 1899-11-12

investigation. It is true that he has dis covered the existence of a principle called electricity and that he has learned how to harness a great falls and make 1t do the work of millions of men but, beyond that, he has done little but dig into the ground. It has been only within few years that the thought has occurred to him that, be- sides land, the earth upon which we lived contained great deal of water and that 1t was possible that the land beneath this water held treasure as vast as any that had yet been discovered. The thought was a daring one but now that he has proved It to have been an inspiration 1t remains only for some genius to devise means of reaping the benefit of the discovery.
 The question as to how long the mineral supply of the earth could last and what the world would do when 1t became ex- hausted has worried some people not Ht- tle Men with a certain amount Of scientihc knowledge have estimated that the entire store of iron and gold, of silver and coal would be mined within comparatively short time, and that when this result had been attained there would be nothing for the earth to do but to quietly cease to ex- ist. That such deductions have been ac- cepted does not speak well for the race.
 TO begfn with there Is not the slightest indication that the mineral supply of the earth will not last for hundreds or years to come. In England alone there Is coal enough in sight to last until the year 2Soo. and there is every probability that still greater supply will be found before these four centuries have passed. It is absolute ly impossible to place limit upon the sup ply of coal in the earth in this country while in China the mining of coal has prac- tically just commenced. For hundreds or wears the people of the Celestial Kingdom have been working at these mineral depos- it's. but they are so great in extent that no impression has yet been made upon them: All through the east there are vast coal deposits, some of the the most extensive in the world and all as yet practically un- worked Up to the present time no limit has been placed upon the amount Of coal stored in the earth in Germany. and there is scarcely part of the world where coal cannot be mined for hundreds of years to come.
 4 similar state of affairs exists in regard to other mineral deposits. Of course the time may come when there will be no more gold or silver, no more hron or copper. put before that time has arrived man has vast amount of labor to perform Not only must he rob the earth of Its mineral wealth but he must devise means of taking pos session of the vast store that Is hidden in the land under the waters of the earth,
 Already great, coal mines have been dis covered under the waters of the Pacific. In Chilli such a mine is being operated, and one may now ride in electric cars through solid tunnels of coal that extend far beneath the waters of the great ocean.
 In the same maner copper is nov being mined beneath the waters of Lake Superior. Long ago the veins In the Calumet and Hecla mines carried the workmen out un- der the gerat lake and the work of mining the metal is carrying them further beneath the surface each day.
 In Wales tin Is being mined far beneath