30 



in 1874, when Birmingham, Ala., had only just been born 

 and named a town, have ventured to predict that before the 

 close of the century, pig iron would there be sold more 

 cheaply than even in the Middlesboro district of England. 

 Against such forces many of the old-established districts have 

 had to recede, and therefore a new region, even with the 

 advantages which Hunt believed to reside in the coal and 

 iron of Hocking Valley, had little chance of forcing itself 

 into the prominent position Hunt fondly assigned to it. His 

 professional work in coal was also extended into Kentucky. 



In another sphere of extra-collegiate work, Hunt attained 

 considerable renown as an expert in court. He was occa- 

 sionally employed to give evidence in cases in the East, 

 involving chemical or metallurgical questions, but the trial 

 which brought out his forensic capacity into greatest promi- 

 nence was the famous Eureka vs. Richmond case. By stipu- 

 lation of both parties the case was tried in San Francisco 

 before Justice Field. 



In no one of the innumerable trials which are unavoidably 

 growing out of the ambiguities and absurdities of the mining 

 law of 1872, and for which its irrational provisions give an 

 excuse, was exhibited a more brilliant display of legal and 

 expert testimony. The case was one involving the meaning 

 of the term lode, under the law, where no lode under the old ac- 

 ceptation of the term really existed, and where therefore expert 

 testimony was really essential to an elucidation of the points 

 at issue. These involved questions in stratigraphical geology 

 as well as in the genesis and alteration of ores. Hunt's 

 calm and clear statement of the geological facts of the case, 

 and r his lucid explanation of the dynamic forces by which 

 certain rock strata were shattered and became the channels 

 for the infiltration of mineral solutions, thus constituting 

 these strata a lode ; and further of the subsequent changes by 

 which the original sulphides were altered into the oxidized 

 minerals, then constituting the wealth of the territory and 

 ore bodies in dispute, was so free from bias as almost to 

 escape interruption from the opposing counsel, and so won- 



