PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 627 



building- material, and the result was that they sent all the way to New 

 Hampsliire for it, when in this very State they had a far better material. 

 Another case is that of a farmer who was in great distress on account of 

 a heavy mortgage on his farm, and in order to raise means to pay it he 

 determined to go to California and work in the mines until he could make 

 enough to redeem his farm, but. he left more gold behind him on his farm 

 than there was on his working claim in California. I have seen $20 taken 

 from this farm in one day, and this is not an unusual amount. Some per- 

 sons have thought that this gold must have come from some quartz vein. 

 There may be such, but I have never been able to see any indications of 

 quartz. So far as I have been able to understand the theory of gold 

 deposits, it is found more frequently in the quartz vein than in any other 

 kind of rock. Occasionally gold is found in several kinds of slate, and at 

 times in tertiary rocks. I am not disposed to limit the precise locality to 

 any one, two, three, or four kinds of rock, but it may at times pay better 

 in a certain kind of rock. Why it is found more in the quartz ruck can 

 readily be explained by the chemical theory. In the quartz, there is always 

 associated with the gold, sulphur and iron. This sulphur and iron has the 

 gold in combination, and the sulphur in the quartz, when decomposed, 

 leaves the iron and goes by itself. The result of this decomposition is 

 what is called red quartz, and red quartz is understood to be an indication, 

 of gold. The gold of California, as examined by Dr. Tr^k, is found in 

 three distinct formations; the last is in a series of veins running north and 

 south. This system of veins can be traced from Cape Horn to the Indies, 

 and from the British Possessions to the North Pole. Everj'where they are 

 very rich in gold. Then there is another system which crosses this, run- 

 ning nearly southeast and southwest. This system is later in its origin 

 than the others, because it crosses over them. The series running north- 

 east and northwest contains various metals, and occasionally pure copper, 

 and ultimately all gold veins in California will bear copper. 



We now come to another point, as at times we are asked some very 

 stumbling questions, and in self-defence we are obliged to concoct some 

 theory in reply to them; and here I may say it is pure theory. One of the 

 questions which has puzzled the geologist very much is this: Where does 

 this gold come from originally ? This question throws the scientific man 

 on his beam end. It will not do to say he does not know, fox that 

 would tend greatly to destroy his other opinions and he will be regarded as 

 of no account; so we have to invent theories, pure theories. Some say it 

 comes up from the bottom of the ocean. This would lead us to infer that 

 if we find a vein of gold on the surface that pays a certain rate per day, 

 and if we should go down some two, three, or six hundred feet, we would 

 find gold that would pay still better — and this is the upshot of the whole 

 theory. I suppose as much money has been sunk in this country upon this 

 false theory as upon any other. All we can say is that after going from 

 one series of rock to another we come to one that has gold; then we come 

 along still later and again we find another system of rocks that has pure 

 gold; after which we come to a series of rocks that are termed tertiary, 

 which compose most of the crust of this globe. Bischoff supposes that it 

 was formed from water. Certainly the ocean contains an immense amount 



