A GOLD MINE. 73 



into it ; in that case they would be arranged in 

 layers according to their specific gravity or 

 weight, but they are not. Then, again, the most 

 delicate crystals and threads of gold are mingled 

 and interlaced in such ways that a melted mass 

 forced up into the rents would not permit 

 to form. The explanation is that the quartz was 

 introduced into all veins either from below 

 through the agencies of hot water and steam, in 

 which it and all its metals were dissolved, or it 

 oozed from the walls out of the surrounding 

 rocks, through which there is always a circulation 

 of water. There are abundant reasons for this ex- 

 planation, but here there is no space for stating 

 them. At the Steamboat Hot Springs of Nevada 

 this making a quartz vein with metallic contents 

 is going on to-day, and open to all observers, and 

 it is accomplished as I have indicated. 



Now for a little further notice about gold. It 

 is mined with drills, picks and shovels, and 

 dynamite in the hands of strong, hardy men. 

 They do not "dig" gold only in gravel deposits. 

 With us the quartz is blasted out, and hauled to 

 a stamping-mill or crusher, where it is pounded 

 into sand by stamps weighing about nine hun- 

 dred pounds each. The gold is thus cleared 

 from the quartz, melted into bars, and sold in 

 New York to the United States Government. 



