MINING 



3821 



MINING 



and platinum from the Ural Mountains. Those 

 glittering diamonds have come from Kimber- 

 ley, or perhaps from Brazil; the rubies from 

 Burma; the emeralds from Peru; the sapphires 

 from Ceylon, and the turquoises from Persia. 

 In your town there may be a foundry, which 

 possibly receives iron mined in the British 

 Isles, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, Swe- 

 den, Italy, Spain, Siberia, Canada or the United 

 States. The grocery store has sulphur from 

 Sicily or Louisiana, and salt from Austria, 

 Great Britain, Michigan or New York, and 

 the stonemason may have Italian marble side 

 by side with Vermont granite and Welsh or 

 Pennsylvania slate. 



Back of the production of these minerals is 

 the story of the pioneers. The search for min- 

 erals, especially the precious metals, is a record 

 of romantic and thrilling episodes in the lives 

 of individuals and of nations. In their day the 

 Phoenicians went to the ends of the known 

 world, to South Africa and to Spain, for gold, 

 silver and copper. It was the wealth they won 

 from the mines of Spain which later made the 

 Carthaginians rich and powerful enough to 

 defy the power of Rome. Spain became the 

 Roman Siberia, where thousands upon thou- 

 sands of slaves spent their lives in the mines 

 for the glory and wealth of Rome. In more 

 recent times the discovery of new mineral de- 

 posits has always been followed by quick colo- 

 nization and slower civilization. The pros- 

 pector, the gold seeker, has always pushed far 

 ahead of organized society. It was the lure of 



precious metals and gems which led men to 

 the four corners of the earth to India, America, 

 Africa and Australia. In Mexico, Peru, British 



Columbia, California, New South Wales, the 

 Transvaal, Alaska, the Yukon and Porcupine 

 wherever yellow nuggets or traces of gold 

 have been found towns have sprung up in a 

 night, as if by the magic of Vulcan or Thor. 

 Civilization treads on the heels of the gold- 

 digging adventurer. 



Prospecting. The discovery of deposits of 

 valuable minerals calls for a great deal of 

 knowledge and experience. The presence of 

 iron is often suspected from the rusty appear- 

 ance of rocks. Beds of magnetic iron are often 

 discovered by the peculiar influence they exert 

 on the magnetic needle. Reservoirs of petro- 

 leum are marked now and then by oily springs. 

 But even when mineral deposits are known to 

 be present in the soil, it is necessary to deter- 

 mine how extensive they are before money can 

 be safely expended in mining operations. There 

 are several ways of finding out just how rich 

 the deposit is. Underground borings may be 

 made here and there, -following the mineral 

 layer, or seam; or a number of holes may be 

 driven from the surface of the ground, piercing 

 the seam at intervals. If these explorations in- 

 dicate a rich bed of ore, preparations for mining 

 are made. 



Kinds of Mines. The kind of mining to be 

 followed depends in each case upon the nature 

 and position of the deposit. Much ore is 

 found spread under the earth in layers of vary- 

 . ing thickness, level or with only a slight grade. 

 On the other hand, ore is occasionally found in 

 layers that are almost vertical, or it may occur 

 in separate pockets. The depth at which it is 

 found varies greatly. Some exceedingly deep 

 mines, like the Calumet and Hecla copper 

 mine, at Calumet, Mich., go down into the 

 earth more than six times the height of the 

 Woolworth building in New York, or nearly a 

 mile. Deep mines of this sort often, indeed, 

 somewhat roughly resemble the interior of a 

 modern office building with its layers of floors. 

 The hole, or shaft, cuts through a number of 

 beds of mineral, all rich enough to be work- 

 able. In such a case, mining goes on simul- 

 taneously on several levels, precisely like the 

 work in a factory, and the miners are lowered 

 to their work in a cage which is quite like the 

 elevator in a modern office building. 



Not all mines, of course, are entered by means 

 of vertical holes. Seams of coal often reach 

 the surface, and nothing is commoner in the 

 American Middle West than to see the mouths 

 of mines, looking like rather dirty caves, lead- 

 ing directly into the sides of hills. A passer-by, 



