The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1907-08-31
REASONS FOR ORE BODIES
TOLD BY AN ENGINEER

If we may. be permitted to reason
back so far, we will assume that the
"nebular hypothesis is correct That
at one time the earth was a mass of
gas, floating around in space, posi-
bly, erupted from the sun and thrown
out into space. This mass of gas, in
time, cooled into ball of liquid, and
still further cooling tended to solidi-
fly. Naturally, the outside cooled
first, and formed crust around the
molten ball, but as it is well known
fact that as anything cools it con-
tracts, hence we must consider the
molten interior as still cooling and
contracting. This would therefore
make the interior contract away from
the outer crust, and the outer crust
must wrinkle and crack along the
weakest places in order to allow the
crust to settle upon the molten inte-
rior as it cracks and wrinkles. Noun
tains are wrinkles in the earth's
crust From our early geography we
learned that mountains are eleya-
tions of land" Where land has been
elevated or wrinkled up. Therefore,
mountains are elevated along the
lines where the earth's crust is weak
est-they mark the line of weakness,
consequently the cracking is in the
mountains and the cracks are filled
with porphyry intrusions, or dykes,
or lodges, or veins. Mines are al
ways found in mountainous coun-
tries, for the veins are along the
Cracks that occurred when the
mountains were thrown up. 1t has
been said by experienced investors
n or fr,in oil in hn
most God-forsaken and inaccessible
places" But the reason is plain that
they couldn't be found where the
earth's crust was SO strong that it did
not crack, and theoretically we might
expect more cracks or veins IN the
toughest country.
Now, let us go to the gravity ques-
ton. 1t it was possible to bore hole
straight through the earth, and out
on the opposite side, you might drop
come out on the other side and fly
into space. In fact Chinaman could
drop ball from his side and you
from your side each would go to the
center of the earth and stay there.
Figuratively speaking, the center of
gravity is the center of the earth, ma
center when the earth was a. molten
mass and we might expect, if we
could reach it, that the center of the
molten earth would consist of the
heaviest metals and substances.
Now, when the solid outer crust of
the earth wrinkles, cracks and set
ties on the molten interior, we natu-
rally theaorize that it splashed or
squeezed the melted porphyry and
other rock through the cracks, to af-
terward be known as dykes, lodges or
veins, among the mountains.
If the crack is miles wide, as it
sometimes happens, it might squeeze
up smoothly and evenly the lava flow
or porphyry so gently as not to get
the metal values in this immense
dyke, and later as the dyke cooled it
when the next squeeze came, which
probably made a tremendous earth
quake as it wrinkled and slipped, ii
possibly erupted the molten center
metals with the rest making the
values in contact veins.
Take a child's hollow rubber ball,
fill it with muddy water and allow it
to settle for few hours and then
take a sharp knife and cut big cash
in the ball on the upper side, or cut
slice out of it a half-inch wide and
squeeze the ball gently, without shak-
ing to agitate the mud, and clear wa
ter will flow from the cash, leaving
the heavier mud on the bottom of the
ball. Take another ball with a
small cash in it and squeeze it sud-
denly and violently and muddy wa
ter will shoot through the small
crack. So it is that big veins gener-
ally contain low values and narrow
veins contain high values.
This is a big subject, on which |
books could be written, and all from
theory, and there are places where
there might be exceptions to this
theory but we cannot take space to
argue on other theories and eXcep-
tons, for we admit that there are
other theories, that may be equally |
as logical. Ballet, e. NJ, C. E.,
in the Manhattan Mail.
I.,S,A ,srl,O