JANUABT 6, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



11 



more and more it is certain to be brought 

 from remoter localities. But when we 

 look a long way ahead, say for a 

 century, we can not feel free from anx- 

 iety. This condition of mind is even 

 more prominent in Europe than in Amer- 

 ica. The waning of the famous old mines 

 near Aix la Chappelle, and the apprehen- 

 sions felt regarding other sources, have led 

 to a world-wide search. Zinc ores, for ex- 

 ample, now reach Hamburg from the Pa- 

 cific shore of Siberia, and as other discov- 

 eries are made, additional points remote 

 from present smelting centers are likely to 

 be shippers, provided that transportation 

 is by water. Nevertheless, all these new 

 conditions call for advances in price and 

 before many years zinc bids fair to take 

 the upward course. 



The precious metals, silver and gold, are 

 the only other two which we may pass in 

 quick review. Silver is a less profitable 

 object of mining than it was twenty years 

 ago, and yet with the improvement of 

 processes of extraction and with the great 

 development of the output of copper and 

 lead in which it is a by-product, the fall in 

 its price of the early nineties has been less 

 disastrous to the amount produced than 

 one might have supposed. Our maximum 

 output was reached in 1892 when it was 

 63,500,000 ounces valued at $55,662,500. 

 In the same year about 1,600,000 ounces of 

 gold were produced valued at somewhat 

 over thirty-three millions of dollars. In 

 1908 we are credited with approximately 

 fifty-two and a half million ounces of silver, 

 valued at twenty-eight million dollars. 

 Gold, meantime, with the fall of silver, has 

 advanced to 4,574,340 ounces, valued at 

 $94,560,000. 



In the United States we have now com- 

 paratively few distinctively silver mines. 

 Among them Tonapah, Nev., has been 

 chief. Mexico is the particular home of 



silver, but the remarkable district of Co- 

 balt, Ontario, has given great present im- 

 portance to Canada. In our own country 

 we must expect the white metal to share the 

 fortunes of the copper and lead with which 

 it is chiefly produced. As influencing its 

 future, copper is a more serious factor than 

 lead, both for the reason that Missouri 

 lead contains little if any silver, and be- 

 cause western copper ores display greater 

 reserves than do western lead ores. As 

 sources of silver there were in 1908 no very 

 great differences among Montana (a cop- 

 per-silver state), Colorado (a silver and 

 lead-silver state), and Nevada (a silver 

 state). Utah (both a lead-silver and a 

 copper-silver state) afforded about five 

 sixths Montana's output; and Idaho (a 

 lead-silver state) about three fourths Mon- 

 tana's;- Arizona (a copper-silver state) 

 follows after a long interval, and the others 

 are much smaller. 



As an indication of relative magnitudes, 

 while the output of the United States was 

 placed at 52.5 million ounces in 1908, Mex- 

 ico afforded 72.6 and Canada 22 millions. 

 Australia with 17.3 follows and then Peru 

 with 7.2 millions. A metal with so high a 

 value as silver will stand transportation 

 from remote points, and although the pro- 

 duction in one country or another may 

 fluctuate, the world's supplies are not 

 likely to be seriously affected for many 

 years. Silver is largely used in the metal- 

 lic state, and, being resistant to change, it 

 tends to accumulate. Photography is the 

 most destructive industry to it, and when 

 once employed in this art, it is practically 

 lost. 



' In ounces they range : 



Montana 10,356,200 



Colorado 10,150,200 



Nevada 9,508,500 



Utah 8,451,300 



Idaho 7,558,300 



Arizona 2,900,000 



