Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-01-24
MUCH GOLD IN, HE OCEAN

s5e,ooo;o0o In Sea For. Eyery lnhabi1
:.ia ts'.~tant Says Hammond. Ti;eit,
There is s5o,006,00o in gold in the
sea for every, inhahitant Of, the globe
Gays John Hays Hatfim ond,, :tthet famous Jus
mining erginesr<c But unfortunately
no commercially successful method Of
extracting it has been invented thus
fer. Water 'dredged from the great
depths of the Atlantic contains four
grains of gold to q ton of water. An
estimated total amount Of gold in the
oceans Of the world thus runs into
thousands Of millions Of tons.
Is. Hammond tells The Story of Gold"
in sthe january Mentor Magazine,
drawing upon, his life experience for
some or the most interesting bits OF
his article He tells Of meeting John
Marshall, the discoVerer Of gold in CAL
| ifornia. Marshall showed the famous
engineer the exact spot,'where he found
the tiny nugget that started the Cali
fofnia gold, rush in;'49y :, 2. y -
I. Mans high regard for gold is due,
Hammond believes, to :l race memory
Of the time when 1t was the only metal
known Unlike other metals, which
generally require smelling, gold is of
ten found; inta free state. One of the
largest nuggets Of this BORT the
eWcleome Stranger" found at Dun
oily, Victoria, In 1863 weighed 2,2SS
onnces. So gold may have Been made
into ornaments before the discovery
OF fire. The earliest recorded civili-
zation knew how to mine r. .'.Es'
- Gold was the chief medium Of ex-
change in the ancient world. Kings
apparently esteemed 1t more than
| their wealth in land. During the
fnediaevai times little gold was mined;
| in the fifteenth century the worlds to-
tai supply Yves valued at $225, 100000
only. -, - 49, -
! California Leads in Production =.
The stony of gold in the United
States began with the rush Of Califor-
! mia; in 40. California still leads all
other states In gold production. Me-
veta, Colorado, and South Dakota are
close rivals. The Klondlke rush Ito
! northwestern Canada in'18s7 was SUBJ
stantially repetition of the Califor-
MIA rush,, But sthe Klondike's gold
production has Gfsteadilyi fallen off.
wfile%that. Of the neighbofing Jiterri-
| tory of Alaska has increased until 1t
| is today, one of the worlds most inn
| portant gold producing districts. -
! Australia experienced a gold rush
! shortly after. California. Thirty years
later, important; fields were discover
ed in the vast, arid interior. Engine
ers have worked r1iarvels there, piping
water hundreds of miles to the miners.
=, ~, Rand Richest Field. ir.' e,
The richest geld producing region
is the Witwaterstrand. or White Watt
ers Range, in tile TransVaal,5 South
Africa The Rand, as tits commonly
called, Is "a tract forty miles long.
From this small area half the worlds
supply of gold has come for many
years. Gold worth s12,ooO,ooo,OoO is
still accessible there, engineers say.
India is the greatest consumer of
geld, according to Hammond. It is
used mostly for ornamental purposes.
Pure gold is too soft for mostiuses in
the arms. It Is alloyed with copper and
silver for making COINS plate; and
| jewelry.: No other metal is' 30, mallei
able or SO ductile. An ounce Of gold
Gun be drawn into wire 50 miles long
and beaten into leaf s1,SB7, 500 OF an
inch thick. ~
e. :