Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1914-07-21
ORIGIN OF METALS
Varied Theories as to How the
e 4'tNt.
Ores Are Formed.
NATURE HIDES THE SECRET.
Science Has For Centuries Tried to
Wrest II. From Her, but Biologists
and MineraIogists Are as Yet Unable
to Agree Upon the Process.

to Agree Upon the Process.
You have read of that legendary In
dian who while chasing game on ,
Bolivian mountain side seized a busl
to prevent himself from falling, and
the bush being pulled loose from its
scanty hold on the rocks, he saw it.
crooked roots grasping masses Of
cleaning white ore and thus became
the discoverer of the famous silver
mines of Potosi :" =
You have also read, perhaps with
itching fingers, of prospectors picking
up nuggets Of gold worth a thousand
dollars each or opening veins of quartz
all shot through with heavy threads
of the yellow metal. f;
You know that ores of gold and
silver or of any other precious or use
full metal are not to be found in every.
body's back yard, but must be sought
for in certain favored parts, of the
earth.
But has your intelligent curiosity ever
led you to inquire how those ores came
to be where they are and nowhere
else? Have you ever wondered what
makes gold nugget?
Possibly you think that gold and
other metals grow somewhat as fruits
do--in soils and climates that are spe-
cially suited to them. Well, there is
considerable truth in that idea, and
the word 'grow" is, in one sense, sur
prisingly applicable to such deposits.
But there is great deal more in the
matter than you would imagine, and
on no subject has science fought more
battles royal than on this of the origin
of metallic ores. think that there are
some geologists who would rather find
out this secret to the very bottom than
discover the richest lode that the ribs
of the earth contain. If they could do
both that would be perfection, and we
must not forget that knowledge is
power.
Until about 400 years ago everybody
who thought about it at all believed
that veins Of precious ore were dis
tributed under the influence of the
planets. At that time astrology held
the place of science.
Finally George Agricola, a German
who lived about the time
when the gold and silver of Mexico
and Peru were making Spain the tenn
porary mistress of the world, hit upon
a theory which came in substance very
near the truth. He taught that water.
penetrating into the earth and becom-
ing heated, took up scattered minerals |
In solution and afterward deposited |
them as ores in cavities in the rocks. |
earth's Juices"
A couple Of hundred years later the
German geologist Werner set forth a
view that became very famous under
the name Of the "Neptunist theory"
from Neptune. the god of the sea.
Werner's idea was that as the earth
cooled down from the primeval nebula
)ut of which 1t was formed it was en-
Veloped in a universal hot ocean, hold
ng in solution all kinds of minerals,
'ormed the water leaking down into
t deposited its metallic contents by
chemical precipitation in veins and
odes wherever the circumstances were
favorable.
But hundred years ago the Nep-
unist theory, which had swept every
hing before itrin the minds of men
If science, met its Waterloo at the
lands of Hutton, the Scottish geolo-
list, with his "Plutonic' theory from
Pluto. the god of the internal regions).
Iutton's idea was that the materials
which fill the metallic veins were melt
ID by heat and forcibly injected into
he clefts and assures of the strata
rom below.
The 'Neptunists" and "Plutonists"
lad hard fight, with the latter hold
ng the upper hand, until their theory
lad assumed a kind of compromise
orm, with water again playing the
principal role. The American geolo-
list, Van Hise, is the author of one of
he latest theories, according to which
neteoric water condensed atmospheric
'aporl penetrates deep into the earth's
rust, and, with steadily increasing
takes up mineral matter
ntO solution. Spreading, as it gets
eeper, the water reaches larger open {
ngs in the rocky crust, in which it {
scends, with decreasing temperature
nd pressure.
There it deposits the ores, whose ma
erials 1t has collected in its wander {
ngs and carried along in solution. {
But this is not the last word, and in
ecent years there has been partial 5
eaction toward the Plutonist theory. /
BESIDES, great deal seems TO depend /
pom the nature Of the ore whose orr
in is In question.-Garrett p. Serviss |
n New York Journal. Z