METALS AND THEIR ORES. 25 
are somewhat auriferous. I think I have beeri told that the Vershire 
copper ore has been tested by the company many times, and that it may 
be relied upon to furnish $7 in gold to the ton. J. W. Cleaveland, of the 
Copperas Hill works in Strafford, informs me that several dollars’ worth 
of gold to the ton have been found in the refuse heaps of his establish- 
ment, and a much larger amount in the fresh specimens of copper ore.* 
Capt. Edgar has stated that the zinc blende of Warren carried $60 of 
gold to the ton. This has not been verified in a practical way. 
An interesting question, of both theoretical and practical interest in 
this connection, relates to the chemical condition of the gold in the sul- 
phurets, Is it a sulphuret, or the element itself, free from all combina- 
tion, as in the quartz veins? The fact of the absence of any free gold in 
the pyrites, and its sudden appearance after decomposition, led one mod- 
ern author to revive the ancient alchemistic notion of the derivation of 
gold from the baser metal. It is said by chemists that the pente-sulphide 
of potassium has no effect upon free gold, but will dissolve the sulphuret. 
This reagent has been brought to bear upon auriferous sulphurets, with 
the results claimed; and hence it seems evident that the gold occurs in 
pyrites in combination with sulphur. This latter element needs to be 
carefully eliminated from all gold-bearing ores before the precious metal 
can be amalgamated. 
Cook and Brown's Mine. In 1875 I found renewed activity upon the 
opening called the Cook and Brown mine, by parties known under 
the name of the New England Mining and Reduction Company. About 
five tons of the ore had been worked in Boston, yielding $23.59 to the 
ton; and they desired to test certain improved processes for extracting 
gold from its combination with sulphur. Before thoroughly testing the 
vein, the mill was erected just above Young’s pond; and after its com- 
pletion, owing to irregularities in the vein, not enough ore could be raised - 
to supply the works. A very few feet below the surface, a quartz vein 
* He says,—‘‘ We have found that the yellow deposit from the water flowing out of the adit contains gold in 
small quantities. It has been known for several years that the ore from this mine contains gold; but I was not 
aware that we had silver until Prof. Bartlett, of Portland, Me., made an assay of some of the old spent heaps, 
and found, from the top of a heap that has been undisturbed for twenty years, that it contained four dollars and 
fifty-five cents’ worth of silver and ten dollars of gold to the ton. H. F. Carpenter, of Portsmouth, R. I., has 
been experimenting with the pyrites for the past year, and reports that, from seventy-five to one hundred trials, 
he is able to get sixty dollars of gold per ton; but the gold is an ore, and not in condition to be extracted profit- 
ably.” April rz, 1878. 
VOL.V. 4 
