The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-06-30
PRECIOUS METALS
UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SUR yEY PLANNING MAPS.
rTe show Location Of Deposits o' ! Valuable Mctais-Stores of
 Gold And silver.

known gold depositS all over the 1 aurfferous portions of the United States. Provided with one of these charts, when they are published which wiu not be for quite while The earnest Kold-s eekers, no matter In what part of the country he may be win be able to tell just where he ought to go and lotik for stones of the yellow metal
 It is not merely gold deposits that will be shown by these maps, how ever. but natures stores of silver also, wherever they may be concealed in the earth, and deposits of other val uable metals Of course there are in this country many rich mines of sil- yer and gold, destined to be produc- tive at future period ds, which have not yet been discovered. The government g01ogists, obviously, cannot point them out; but anybody can obtain from the geological survey suggestions as to how and where to search for such hidden wealth.
 Apparently. there has been taken from the bowels of the earth in the United states up to date only small fraction of the total gold that Is des- tined to be produced in the country. If evidence to back this proposition be wanted, 1t will be found in the very interesting and remarkable fact that the United States produced more gold last year than in any other year of their previous history. The total output of our mines in 1906 was ap- proximately $s6 6,Ooo,000 worth of gold Just about one-fourth of the entire worlds production
 1t Is expected that the year l9o' will make another record, probably reaching or passing $i0o, 100000 worth of gold. Recently some enormousiy rich deposits of the yellow metal have been discovered in Nevada, the already famous goldfield1 area producing the richest ore and purest gold ever found in the state. Some of the new Nevada bonanzas are Of extraordinary size and richness, and the first carloads Of ore taken fNom the Manhattan camp is southern NG- vada yielded $460 in gold to the ton, the material being dug so close to the surface that it actually had grass roots in it
 Meanwhile the celebrated Comstock Lode, which has in the past yielded over e400. .o00,0 worth of Tilver, is being opened up again by fresh en- gineerfng enterprises, and seems des- tined to revive at least to some ex- tent, its former glories. It is a fact worth mentioning that the modern art of mining was to great extent
  this great deposit, in the working or which the highest engineering skill was for the first time associated with Inc knowledge of the expert geolo- lEist
 Now, 1t may be said in general way that the wonderful development of the Worlds gold deposits during the last few years have been attribut- able mainly to this combination of geological science and engineering clawerness By this means were opened up the wonderful mines of the VV1twatersrand in South Africa, which, though containing only low-grade ore, not running over about $15 ton, have already yielded far greater quantity of the yellow metal than has ever been dug out Of the State or California Yet the deposit Is nothing more than an ancient sea beach, with the sands of which grains of gold, brought down by rivers from the land were mingled.
 The worlds total output of gold for 1906 was more than twice what 1t was in 1s94--only twelve years ear Her. In that year the production was about $1S2,o00. .o0o-by far the highest up to that date. The worlds output of gold never reached $2O0,- 100000 until two years later. in 1896 when 1t was a little over $202, 900, 900. From that time on, owing chiefly to the development of the mines of the nntil 1908 it rose above the $300,- 100000 mark. Last year 1t was not much under s4O0, 900, 900.
 As for the wonderful new Nevada mines, at Tonopah and other more recently exploited localities, they ought to be the present time the property of the United States. Unfor- TR1r Ea1- To- .,.A that these enormusly rich arears were sold off for about $2.50 an acre. As a result, Wall street now owns them The way in which such things work out is only too sadly familiar. A prospector hits upon a promising deposit. and disposes of it to a store- keeper for a barrel of whisky. The storekeeper sells 1t to a promoter, who organizes company, and finally the mine is brought out by one or more capitalists, who are the only ones who get any substantial and permanent benefit out of It.
 If, instead of selling these great Nevada gold deposits for a song, the government had held on to them and merely leased them, they would belong Ao the people in perpetuity; and, ad- uainistered with a reasonable amount of intelligence, they would produce an Income that would pay for all the ir- rigation of the west and for the re- 3oresting of the country.
 In this country within the last half dozen years there has been a great development of mining for gold by dredging the river sands Some of the rivers on the Pacific coast are ex- ceedingly rich, their sands being lit- orally golden. Recently the United States geological survey has made special investigation of the sand of the Columbia and certain of it's trib- utartes, which have been found to contain a good deal of the yellow metal. Usually the gold has accum- ulated on the bars and benches along the streams, and one must dig through a barren top layer in order to get down to the pay streak" which may be from one to four feet thick. Occasionally the pay streak is stained with iron oxide, so as to be easily dis- tinguishable
 The recent opening up of the new territory called Rhodesia, in South Africa, has been pushed by British capital largely in the belief that vast deposits of gold would be found there Whether this expectation is to prove correct or not nobody can say yet. By some authorities King Solomon's s mines are stated to have been there located, and ancient workings have been found, with many molds in which the gold was evidently cast. There is no question that King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba owned great quantities of gold and that they got it from somewhere in Africa. The source from which they obtained it is spoken of in the Bible as a place called ODhir which certain arcbaoo-