Part 16 (2/2)

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 97.--A PROSPECTOR'S CABIN IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS]

It is not usually an easy matter to find home of a piece of stray quartz upon the mountain side. Days and weeks may pa.s.s while search is made up the slope, for the fragment must have come from some point above. But the ledge, once discovered, is traced along the surface for the purpose of determining its direction and extent.

When a promising bed of gravel or a vein of gold-bearing quartz is found, the prospector posts the proper notices of his right to the claim and has them recorded at the nearest land office.

Then he makes a permanent camp by cutting down trees and building a cabin. The interior of the cabin is very simple. Its table and chairs are made of split lumber. One end of the single room is occupied by the bunk, and the other by a large fireplace. There may be no windows, and the roof may be made of earth piled upon logs, or of long split s.h.i.+ngles commonly known as shakes.

Sometimes, after discovering a very rich quartz ledge, the prospector goes back to a settlement to attempt to interest some one in buying or developing it. Sometimes it happens that he loses the location of the vein and cannot go back to the place where it was discovered. In this way his discovery becomes a ”lost mine,” and grows in importance in people's minds as the story of its riches spreads from one to another. Although men may spend years looking for such mines, they are not often found again.

Frequently two men go prospecting together so that their work will be less dangerous and lonely. If they are not at once successful, they manage in some way to get supplies for a trip each year into the mountains. Often they are ”grub-staked,” that is, some man who has money furnishes their supplies in return for a share in their findings.

If they have enough to eat, the prospectors, in their snug cabin, are comfortable and happy. The cabin is built as near as possible to the mine, so that the men need not be cut off from their work during the stormy weather. The temperature underground is about the same in both winter and summer, so that winter storms and summer heat form no hindrance to the work.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 98.--MOUTH OF A TUNNEL]

Years spent in life of this kind lead men to love the mountains.

They feel a sympathy with Nature and a companions.h.i.+p in her presence.

When they have to visit the town for supplies, they long to get back to their little cabins. They feel lost in the whirl and confusion of the city.

Summer is a delightful time at the many little miners' cabins scattered through the mountains. The air is invigorating, the water pure and cold. There is everything in the surroundings to make one happy.

In the winter the miner sits by his great fireplace, with the flames roaring up the chimney. He has no stove to make the air close and oppressive. About the fireplace his dishes are arranged--the kettle for beans, the coffee-pot, and the Dutch oven in which the bread is baked. If there are some old paper-covered story-books at hand, it does not matter how fiercely the storms rage without. Ask any old prospector who has spent years in this manner if he would exchange his cabin for a house in the city, and he will most decidedly answer ”no.”

This lonely life in the mountains seems to engender hospitality.

The old-time prospector will make you welcome to his cabin and will share his last crust with you. When he asks you in to have some coffee and beans, he does not do it merely for the sake of being polite, and he will feel hurt if you do not accept his hospitality. His dishes may not be as white as those to which you are accustomed, but I will venture to say that you have never tasted better beans than those with which he will fill your plate from his soot-begrimed kettle.

We ought all to see more of this wildlife. Even if we do not care to, make our permanent homes among the mountains, it would do us good to go there every summer at least, and so not only become stronger, but cultivate that familiarity with and love for outdoor life which our ancestors enjoyed.

GOLD AND GOLD-MINING

Gold derives its value partly from its purchasing power, partly from those properties which make it serviceable in the arts, and partly from its beauty. The high esteem in which gold money is held is as much the result of its comparative rarity as of its physical properties. Among nearly all the nations of the world it has been agreed upon as a standard of exchange. Gold has one disadvantage as a medium of exchange; it is rather too soft to wear well. But this difficulty is overcome by alloying the gold with another mineral of nearly the same color,--copper, for instance.

In order that we may understand better the position which gold occupies in the arts and trades of the world, let us compare it with other metals, and first with platinum. This mineral is far less abundant and has many properties which make it valuable in the arts. Like gold, platinum is malleable and ductile and does not tarnish in the air, but it differs from gold in not being easily fusible, so that it is used in the laboratory for crucibles. The steel-gray color of platinum is, however, so much less attractive than the yellow of gold, that it is not used for ornamental purposes.

An effort was made at one time by Russia, where a comparatively large amount of platinum is found, to coin this metal into money, but its continued use was not found practicable because of its changing price in the markets of the world. If the leading nations would agree upon a fixed value for platinum, it might be used like gold as a medium of exchange.

Silver is brighter and more attractive than platinum, but is of little use in the laboratory. It has been found in recent years to be so much more abundant than gold that its value has decreased greatly as a commercial article. In our country when coined it has, like paper money, been given a value equal to gold.

The diamond has a value far exceeding that of gold, but this value is dependent almost wholly upon its ornamental properties, although the brilliant stone is also useful as an abrasive and cutting agent.

From these facts it is evident that gold, because of its rarity, its physical properties, and its beauty, combines a larger number of desirable characteristics than any other mineral.

Gold can be found in very small quant.i.ties nearly everywhere. It is present in all the rocks and also in sea-water. The gold that is distributed in this manner is of no value to us, for it would cost many times as much to obtain it as it is worth. Nature has, however, concentrated it for us in some places. In portions of the world where the crust has been folded and broken there are veins of quartz extending in long, narrow, and irregular sheets through the rocks. This quartz is the home of the gold, and it is usually found in hilly or mountainous regions.

Do not mistake the yellow iron pyrites for gold. Pyrites is brittle, while gold is malleable. You can hammer a little grain of gold into a thin sheet. Do not make the mistake, either, of thinking that the s.h.i.+ning yellow scales of mica which you see in the sand in the bottom of a clear stream are gold. These yellow minerals that look like gold have been called ”fools' gold” because people have sometimes been utterly deceived by them.

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