22 f^iou.io Cliij Academij of Scioicc and Letters. 



First let us look over this case of mineral one». 

 These are the minerals most sought after by mankind 

 all over the world. Here are specimens of gold, silver, 

 copper, tin, iron, lead and zinc, brought together from all 

 over our countrj^ and Europe. These gold ores are from 

 many of our noted mines in the western states and from 

 Alaska. Not many of them show the pure gold, while 

 most of them appear like ordinary bits of rock such as 

 we might find almost anywhere. This small nugget of 

 pure gold came from the Yukon Kiver in Alaska. From 

 the celebrated Homestake Mine came this piece of gray 

 rock, showing no traces of gold, but rich ore still. Some 

 of the least promising in appearance have the largest 

 percentage of gold. There just beside the gold ores seem 

 to be pieces of common gray rock, but are quite heavy. 

 They are silver ores, some of them Yerj rich in the metal. 

 This one, for its size, is very heavy. In every pound of 

 this ore there is more than a half pound of pure silver, 

 but not manj^ mines produce such valuable ores. Next 

 in the same case are specimens of copper ores from the 

 rich mines of Michigan and Montana. The specimens 

 from the Michigan mines on Lake Superior are almost 

 all pure metallic copper. Tt seems strange to think that 

 copper ore can be so pure as not to be worth mining, but 

 some such ores are found in the Michigan mines. Masses 

 of pure copper weighing many tons are found there, and 

 the labor in cutting such a mass into pieces small enough 

 to be taken out of the mines and smelted costs as much 

 or more than the pig copper is worth. These specimens 

 of pure copper from those mines have all sorts of fan- 

 tastic shapes. The rocky matrix from which these pieces 

 came seems to have been shattered and broken millions 

 of years ago, and afterwards every crack and crevice was 

 filled with pure metallic copper. Where did it come 

 from, and how was it deposited in these strange shapes 

 we have here, are questions we all might ask. We may, 

 perhaps, find our answers in the copper mines of Mon- 

 tana. There the water that is pumped from the mines 

 holds so much copper in solution that pure metal stalac- 

 tites are being formed wherever the water trickles down 

 from rock or timber. If you dissolve copper sulphate 



