Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-09-13
TITS OUR YELLOW SLAVE
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS
PURE GOLD.

4
| Bottom of the Sea.
G. F. Lumms writes in st. Nicholas
that the only abundant metal in the
world that is yellow is the most prec-
ious Of them all-gold Brass is not a
true metal, but an alloy, a compound.
And the color which gold shares
with the sun has a great deal TO do
with its value. 1 do not think it would
be possible that he should ever have
| come to love and admire any metal so
much. to choose it for our highest cur
rency and our ornaments, no matter
how rare or ductile it might be. IL 1t
were n dark, dull, gloomy color. The
human eye never gets too old TO be
pleased with very much the same
things which pleased it in childhood;
and no eye is insensible to the charm
Of that precious yellow.
l like sometimes to think back 10
the first man of all men that ever held
that ''rock Of the sun" in his savage
hand, and to imagine how he found it,
and how it made his sharp eyes twin
kle; and how he wondered at its
weight, and pounded it with one
smooth rock upon another, and found
that he could fatten it. All these
things come by accident: and gold was
an accident that befell when the world
was very young. Probably there had
been great rain that washed the
comely lump from It's nest in some
gravelly stream-bank; and the pre-
historic man, in his tunic of skins,
CHANGED this way and found it, 1t
may be that the poor barbarian who
picked up the first yellow nugget sank
with it still grasped in his swarthy fist.
We do not know even the name of
the man who first discovered gold, nor
where he lived, nor when. But it was
very, very long ago. Before the time
Of Joseph and the coat Of many colors
gold had already become not only
discovered fact, but used in the worlds
trade. The early Egyptians got their
gold from Nubia: so. very likely, the
discovery was first made in Africa.
At all events it dates back to the very
childhood Of the race. and before men
had invented the letters of the alpha
bet mankind had achieved the prettiest
plaything it had ever found.
All gold began in veins" in the
earth's rocky ribs, but time, with his
patient hammers Of wind and rain and
frost, has pounded vast areas OF these
rocks to sand, and tine gold, broken
from great bands to Jumps. has drifted
with the bones Of the mountains into
the later heaps Of gravel.
The processes Of mining gold which
still remains IN its original home in
the rocks are much more complicated.
There is q vast amount Of boring TO
be done into the finty hearts Of the
mountains with steel drills and with
blasting, and then the rock which IS
dotted with the precious yellow fakes
has to be crushed between the steel
jaws Of great mills. Much Of the gold
that is mined, too, is 50 chemically
changed that it does not look like gold
at all. and requires special chemical
processes to coax it out In all gold
mining, mercury is one Of the most iin-
pOrtant factors. 1t is the mineral
sheriff, swift to arrest any fugitive
feck Of gold that may come in its way.
The sluice-boxes in extensive placer
mines and the Sheets" in stamp mills
are all charged with quicksilver which
saves vast amount Of the finer gold
dust that otherwise would be swept
away by the current Of water. for
water is equally essential In both
kinds Of mining.
There Is no such thing as pure
gold" often as we hear the phrase
Natures purest, her virgin gold" Sc
Always alleged with silver; and the
very finest is ninety eight or ninety
nine per cent. gold. California gold
averages about the fneness Of our
American coin-ninety per cent. OF
purity.
1T IL an tUu ldCJ tudl VIC ctS 10 luII
of gold. No doubt at the bottom of
that stupendous basin, which has re-
ceived for all time the washings OF all
the world, there is an incalculab bic
wealth Of gold in dust, but the strange !
ocean mine is not all so deep down as
that. The sea water itself carries gold |
in sOlution-a fraction Of grain of !
gold to every ton of water, as IA |
nous chemist has shown.
Among the historical big nuggets
found in various parts Of the world |
there have been some wonderful vel
low Jumps. In Cabarrus County, |
North Carolina, one was found in 1910 |
which weighed thirty-seven pounds
troy. In 1912 the gold fields of Fla
toust, in the Ural, gave a nugget Of
ninety-six pounds troy. The Victoria
(AustraliaJ nugget weighed 146 pounds
and three pennyweights, Of which only
six ounces were foreign rock; and the
Ballarat (Australia) nugget was thirty
nine pounds heavier yet The largest
nugget ever found was also dug in
Sarah Sands named
for far-off loved one. 1t reached the
astonishing weight of 233 pounds and
four ounces troy! ] wonder what MI
ner Sands felt when he struck his pick
upon that fortune in one lump.
Within the last fifty years CalifOr-
MI l;n o1a ha, |
more than half as much gold as the
whole world had mined before Colum-
bus. At present the United States pro-
luces over $6OO00.O00 worth of gold a
year, which is far more than any
other country. South Africa and Aus