The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1914-07-30
ORIGIN OF METALS
v,,;ed Theories as to How the
Ores Are Formed.
NATURE HIDES THE SECRET

m;neraIoeists Are as Yet Unable
a Agree Upon the Process.
have read Of that legendary In
,,.n who while chasing game on
o'a u..,on mountain side seized bush
Do" .avont himself from falling, and.
nush being pulled loose from its
"0 hold on the rocks. he saw its
atsd roots grasping masses OF
s,ssming white ore and thus became
sSa aiscoyerer of the famous silver
mines of Potosi. :,
you have also read. perhaps with
hing fingers. of prospectors picking
~ nuggets of gold worth thousand
snllars each or opening veins of quartz
" sbot through with heavy threads
Of the yellow metal.
you know that ores or gold ana
.,lver or of any other precious or use
A., metal are not to be found in every
hody's back yard. but must be sought
ar in certain favored parts of the
earth.
put has YOUR intelligent curiosity ever
,od YOU to inquire how those ores came
n he where they are and nowhere
alse9 Have you ever wondered what
makes "A 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
I'm that i1n1 and
the word grow is, in one sense, sur
nrisingly applicable to such deposits.
But there is IA great deal more in the
matter than you would imagine. and
an no subject has science fought more
battles royal than on this of the origin
of metallic ores. think that there are
some biologists who would rather find
out this secret to the very bottom than
discover tue richest lode that the ribs
of the earth contain. IL 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
trlbuted under the influence of the
planets. At that time astrology held
the place of science.
Finally George Agricola, a German
mineralogist. who lived about the time
when the gold and silver of Mexico
and Peru were making Spain the tenn
p0rary mistress Of the world, hit upon
n ;ak tn hct 20
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
The mineral solutions he called the
earths Juices"
A couple of hundred years later the
German geologist Werner set forth q
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 eartl
cooled down from the primeval nebul,
out of which it was formed 1t was en-
veloped in a universal hot ocean. hold
Ing in solution all kinds of minerals
and that when the rocky crust wa
formed the water leaking down int
1t deposited its metallic contents b.
chemical precipitation in veins an,
iodes wherever the circumstances wer
favorable.
But hundred years ago the NeI
tunist theory, which had swept every
t1ln0 hofnro In, khA s,.le -
OF science, met its Waterloo at tn
hands of Hutton, the Scottish geolt
gist. with his "Plutonic" theory (frol
Pluto, the god Of the internal regions
Hutton's idea was that the material
which fill the metallic veins were mel
Cd by heat and fOrcibly injected int
the clefts and assures of the STRAIT
from below.
Inc "Neptunists'' and "Plutonists
mad hard fight, with the latter hol'
ing the upper hand, until their theol
mad assumed kind of comprOmis
form, with water again playing Il
principal role. The American geOl
gist, Van Hise, Is the author of one
the latest theories, according to whit
meteoric water condensed atmospher
vapor) penetrates deep into the earth
crust, and, with steadily increasiI
temperature, takes up mineral matt
into solution. Spreading, as 1t &c
deeper, the water reaches larger Ope
ihgs in the rocky crust, In which
aseends, with decreasing temperate
and pressure.
There it deposits the ores, whose n
terials 1t has collected in its wands
ihgs and carried along In solution.
But this is not the last word. and
recent years there has been part
reaction toward the Plutonist theol
Besides. a great deal seems to Dope
upon the nature of the ore whose o
GIN Is in question: Garrett z. Serv
IN New York Journal.
He Knew.
Mrs.-Oh. Jack. Dolly told me
most exciting Sanrat and made