124 
THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
nish is caused not by pure air but by 
the presence of sulphur, forming silver 
sulphide upon the coin’s surface. As 
we also well know, silver is hardened 
by combining with it a small proportion 
of copper, the half-dollar containing 
about nineteen and three-tenths per 
cent of alloy, the quarter-dollar nine 
and six-tenths per cent, and the dime 
about four per cent. The commercial 
ratio of silver to gold, the comparative 
values of these two metals, was about 
fifteen to one in 1700, and this ratio re- 
mained fairly constant until 1874, when 
it became sixteen to one, the value of 
silver compared with gold decreasing 
thereafter. In 1792 Congress passed 
the first coinage act, the ratio between 
silver and gold being placed at fifteen 
parts of silver to one part of gold, but 
in 1834 this was changed to sixteen to 
one. 
Silver has no doubt been known from 
prehistoric times, and man has dug it 
out of the earth for thousands of years. 
Of course only small amounts were 
obtained at first, but now every year 
millions and millions of fine ounces are 
mined. In our own country the states 
of Utah, Montana, Idaho and Nevada 
produce, respectively, the most silver, 
the United States producing annually 
about 75,000,000 ounces. That is, the 
United States produces about forty-six 
per cent of the total amount of silver 
mined by the world. Man has been 
mining silver for thousands of years — 
now, how much in all has he dug out of 
the earth? Statistics have been pub- 
lished respecting the amount of silver 
produced in the world since the year 
1493, about the time when Christopher 
Columbus discovered America. These 
statistics approximate the amount at 
12,400,000.000 fine ounces. However, a 
large amount of silver must have been 
mined before the year 1493, although 
much less than afterwards, probably 
about one-third as much. And, accord- 
ingly, an approximation of all the silver 
which man during his existence has 
dug out of the earth amounts to 17,- 
000,000,000 fine ounces. 
Zoological Sanctity. 
One of our jocose contributors tells 
us that he knew of a “certain fellow” 
who said he would like to do some large 
clean act before he died. It was sug- 
gested that he wash an elephant. 
Nature the Manifestation of God. 
The Reverend Charles Morris Addi- 
son, a I rustee of The Agassiz Asso- 
ciation and formerly rector of St. 
John’s Episcopal Church of Stamford, 
but now of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
sends us a marked copy of an English 
magazine, “St. Martin-in-the-Fields 
Review, ’ and calls our attention to an 
article on “The Language of Nature” 
based on the text. “We do hear them 
speak in our own tongues the wonder- 
ful works of God.” The author de- 
clares that the reason why so many 
nowadays do not see and know God is 
because of specialization : 
“Each speaks his own peculiar lan- 
guage, and shows but scant under- 
standing of what his neighbors in other 
walks of life are trying to say. It is 
the great tragedy of our modern life 
that though our civilization has made 
us so universally dependent on each 
other, we seem to find it harder than 
ever to understand one another’s 
speech.” 
He says the remedy is to be found 
by going to nature : = 
"But first we will turn to an ancient 
non-human language which neverthe- 
less may have a very modern message 
—the language of nature, God’s revela- 
tion of Himself in the world apart 
from man.” 
After an extensive development of 
that aspect of the matter he concludes 
with the following: 
“Even the very effort to rely on God 
sometimes seems somehow to bring 
about its own defeat. But nature can 
help us to recover our sense of propor- 
tion by taking our thoughts away into 
a world where human activity has no 
place at all. The lily, the sparrow, or 
the sunset can give us a new idea of 
God, just because man has nothing 
whatever to do with their existence, 
their beauty or their goodness. Most 
of us can gain a new peace from the 
sense of our own littleness as we gaze 
on the stars on a clear night. 
