The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1915-08-26

or OlI or copper, observes the vegeta
ton, notes the animal lie Eventual
ly 1t energies somewhere, finds its wa,
back 10 the haunts OF man, writes IT.
dry, unromanuc but scientifically vaI
liable report, a report that tells tn,
world many facts that no man ma,
known before ana often proves of in
estlmable money value.
Found Phosphate in Idaho.
IL was 10 years ago that these geol.
oslsts reported the presence in east
ern Idaho OF great ranges of noun
talns made up of phosphate rock There
was then no value attached to this ma
terial, but little later 1t began To be
revealed that Europe had q monopoly
ON the fertilizer output of the world
and that the American farmer might
lind himself pinched. The important
phosphate deposits in the Carolinas, in
Florida and Tennessee were owned by
German corporations and their output
was being exported.
The governments explorers made a
further examination of the phosphate
beds OF Idaho. They found that there
were 100000 acres of them, an mex
haustible supply, ready for the taking
out. Incidentally they showed the
smelters of the west how they could
use their waste sulphurlc acid in get
ting the phosphate rock into disable
form. Today the smelters of San
Francisco and Pueblo are treating this
rock and manufacturing fertilizer as a
byproduct If the fertilizer shoe ever
begins to really pinch here is a solu-
ton.
The Searle's Lake explorations were
the greatest contrast conceivable
the expeditions into Alaska. This lake
lies in the midst of the great Califor-
MIA desert and is sea level waste ol
crystal white, shimmering salt as f;.l
as the eye can reach. The glare Is
almost beyond endurance and the heat
surpasses that anywhere else in the
United States.
Solved Mystery of the Desert.
A borax industry had long before
been established here. There was but
the necessity of shovelling 1t up from
the ground. Aeons ago this region
was covered with a great lake which
had no outlet to the sea. The waters
it contained had slowly evaporated
through the ages. The salts that they
contained were left behind and cover
ed the former lake bed. There was no
water left-apparently.
But If a hole were cut through the
crust of salt on the surface it was
found that at the lowest points there
still remained a sort of mother liquor
which chung onto the most soluble of
its salts. OF those substances that
may be held in solution potash is
among the last to be deposited. This
mother liquor had given up it's other
salts, but still held its potash. 1t re-
manned for the government biologists
to develop and point out the value of
yet another fertilizer than that made
from the phosphates
An everyday work of these explor-
ers is to find government owned wastes
that are underlaid with coal They
make quite thorough examinations of
such deposits and are able to figure
out very closely the amount of coal
that may lie beneath a mountain or
plain. 1t is upon their recommended
tons that much government coal land
has been withdrawn from settlement
Up in Wyoming there is a big tract of
such withdrawn land that was recent
ly sold by the government for $500 an
acre But for the finding Of this coal
by the official explorers of the govern
ment this same land would have sold
for $50 an acre.
Report REEVES Gold Mine.
A government explorer recently
made reconnaissance of vast waste
where Arizona skirts the Colorado riv-
er. In one part of this region was a
and productive gold mine
Forty miles away was the abandoned
shaft Of similar mine.
A little later the geologist met some
mining men in Los Angeles and dis
cussion Of this region followed during
which he asserted that the abandoned
mine had exactly the ore that was pos
sessed by that which was being profit
ably worked. All the geologic condi-
tions were the same on the two prop
critics. One of the men present hap
pened to have had an interest in the
abandoned mine He listened to all
the government geologist had to say
placed the testimony before his fell
lows and the result was the reopening
of the mine. It is today one Of the
richest producers in the southwest.
In Den of Rattlesnakes.
Nowhere in the United States does
the primal condition of lawlessness
exist to greater extent than it does
in the Big Bend of the Rio Grande in
Texas. Here Is a stretch Of sparsely
populated, cactus studded land in
which an eastern state might easily
be los' There is cattle ranch once
in a hundred miles, a quicksilver mine