EARTH'S UNDERGROUND STOREHOUSE 



Those little yellow cubes of iron and sulphur that 

 you saw in the specimen of slate look so much like 

 gold that they have deceived many people. The 

 Spaniards who came to America with Columbus, 

 seeking for gold, took shiploads of this yellow sub- 

 stance back to Spain, only to find that it was not gold 

 at all. Ever since that time people have called it 

 ^^ Fool's Gold." 



There are large deposits of genuine gold hidden 

 away in the rocks of North and South America, but 

 it does not look like these crystals of iron pyrites 

 (py-ri'-tes) . ^Vhen gold crystallizes it has its own 

 law to follow, and that law does not give to it the 

 shape of a cube. But the Spaniards did not know 

 this. They thought the little crystals were gold be- 

 cause they were yellow and looked like gold, and 

 they never guessed that it was iron and sulphur 

 that they were taking back to Spain, instead of the 

 gold they desired. 



Men know better than that in these days. They 

 know that the color alone does not identify a mineral ; 

 they know that the shape and hardness of its crystal 

 tell even more about it than does its color. These 

 laws for the forms of mineral crystals have always 

 been the same, but men have not always known about 

 them. Little by httle we are learning God's laws. 



193 



