A GOLD MINE. 69 



slowly came to a close, after existing several 

 thousand years. These quartz veins are the 

 meeting-places of the metals all over the world. 

 In them are huddled minerals of almost all 

 known varieties. The metals seem to have their 

 loves or affinities. Never yet was gold found 

 without a trace or more of silver intermingled. 

 Like Ruth with Naomi, there is a tacit declara- 

 tion that " Whither thou goest I will go, and 

 where thou lodgest I will lodge." Gold, as 

 found in nature, anywhere out of the ocean, is 

 always uncorabined with any other element. 

 With silver it is simply alloyed. In these veins 

 at Molega it is associated with base metals, that 

 exist as sulphides. We have chemically com- 

 bined these : sulphur and iron, or iron pyrites, 

 sulphur and lead, or galena, sulphur and zinc, 

 or blende or " black jack " of the miners ; sul- 

 phur, iron and copper, or copper pyrites, sulphur, 

 iron and arsenic, or mispicked or " white iron " 

 of the miners. These minerals occur as crystals, 

 distributed in varying quantities through the 

 vein-matter or quartz. The visible gold is to 

 be found usually, either actually in contact with 

 these minerals or very near them. Always 

 there is fine invisible gold caught in the crystals 

 of these base metals. The quantity varies from 

 twenty dollars to two hundred dollars or more 



