SILVER MINES CALIFORNIAN GOLD. 83 



effects of the agents we are speaking of would, 

 in a simple manner, have removed the difficulty. 

 Silver, it is well known, resists the action of the 

 air and weather, while the rocks in which the 

 veins of the metal lie, are readily decomposed, 

 and worn away. The natural result is, that in 

 process of time the veins of silver are left 

 standing out from the surface of the cliff, which 

 has been worn away all around them, and so the 

 first wanderer that passes by finds a mass of the 

 precious metal sticking out of the rock. We 

 are told by Mr. Darwin that the celebrated and 

 rich mine of Chanuncillo, from which silver, 

 to the value of many hundred thousand pounds, 

 has been raised in the course of a few years, 

 was discovered by a man who threw a stone at 

 his loaded donkey, and thinking that it was 

 very heavy, he picked it up, and found it full 

 of pure silver. The vein occurred at no great 

 distance, standing up like a wedge of metal. 



That vast supply of gold which has been re- 

 cently discovered in the sands of rivers, and in 

 the valleys of Australia and California, is another 

 indirect result of the disintegrating influences of 

 air, carbonic acid, and water. This noble metal 

 being scattered in small particles through the 

 substance of various ancient rocks, is at length, 

 by the constant wearing down of the latter, set 

 loose, and is then washed down and borne by 



