i LIBRARY OF COKGIIESS. # ^UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.! iQl ■> I rSi>x>:s»^ o i>::i> 3 »^ 5 ^ ^►i> . 3^31 3 » >> -» ':is> 5 3 > “' 3 ^'^ >> O » ;>> '%) > a si>> 5 r>:> > 7 >^:>^ 4 - feX '^■> 3 .“> ’ 'i; '>:>~y y 'jj >: 5 >>‘ 1 > > >>>>3 ■M>‘ 3 » "•»> 1 ^ ■> '»» >;‘T> ' > •>» >^t> >^C 3 >> 3 "^ > ■ > < ? ^3 > > :> ^ o r>» i> > > 5 ' >3^ »>:> »>> 3 >l 5 ^ 3 >::> 33 » 3 :i^; -■ ‘>;^ > 3:3 > 3 ’' > :> 3 i >3 3 ^ > 33Z i :>3 >:> 3.:2 y^n » 3 ^ >>33 »3l 3 > »31 3 3 )>'>n 3 >331 :3 :>Ty 3 33 - > >i>.i 3 33 ^ y 3 >!)i ^^3 3>3 .h » I 1 t i «V 1l » i (h ••fU "h * 0 V** ' "ika FROM ITS Priiiiary Silicioiis anil Siilplinrons Oxyils, AND OTHFB ELEMENTARY SUBSTANCES AND AGENTS, WITH Explanations of their Spontaneous Action in Nature’s Great Geological Laboratory: First, generating the Precious Metals in a crude Oxydized Metaniorphic Condition, chemically combined with other Mineral and Metallic Oxyds. TOGETHER WITH The Refining Effects of Status Electricity and Volcanic Action in the Ultimate Production of both Atomic (or Molecular) and FREE Pure Metallic Gold. DESCUIBING THE ONLY MODE OF PARTING THE GOLD AND SILVER FROM THEIR HERETOFORE DEFIATORY GOMBINATIONS BY THE CHEMICAL DECOMPOSITION OF THE ORES, AND SUBSEQUENT SYNTHETICAL GATHERING OF ALL THOSE PRECIOUS METALS. IPEICl, y<$>- "€ Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1.S68, by BENJAMIN IIARDINGE, in tlie Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. Bilker iV (ioilwiii, I'riiilers, No. I S|iruee SI., N. Y 'TN'jloi f V V J HARDIXGE u ON THE ORIGINAL FORMATION OF GOLD, FROM ITS PRIMARY ELEMENTARY SUBSTANCES, Specially iycludin^g Silicious Sulphides ; together YTITH OTHER MlNERAL AND METALLIC OXYDS ; ATITH A Description of the Progressive Cblanges In¬ dispensable TO THE Formation of Gold in Na¬ ture’s GREAT Geological Laboratory, and the Eefining Agencies of Status Electricity and FINAL Volcanic Action in Depositing not only “Free Gold,” but Amorphous, Atomic, and Mo¬ lecular Gold Ill such a condition, so cheinicallv combined in its heretofore detiatory ores as to be parted only by chemi¬ cal decomposition of its ores. The following pages will direct the disheartened miner to the saving of all the Gold, instead of only that portion of free Gold which constitutes but a small portion of the precious metal in most of the qnartzose, pyrites, sidphm’ets, &:c., &c. It is now Avell known to many intelligent men, both in Europe and America, with whom I have been in cor¬ respondence Avith reference to the subjects contained in the following pages, that I have been for many years ardently and enthusiastically engaged in analytical tests. as well as synthetical iwoots ; before I attempted in pub¬ lic lectures, more than hve years ago, in this city, to prove the origin of the sixty-live elements of matter composing our globe ; how these elements were progres- generated, and formed into a gaseous nebula, thence into a semi-fluid, and thence into a semi-solid si)heroid. And not only through what laws and agencies the so-called sixty-flve elements of matter were generated and formed, but also the simultaneous action of the result of those pro¬ gressively generated laws in producing, a priori adposteri- us, not only the said sixty-five elements of matter, but also their indefinite combinations for our present analyses: That we may not only know the how, the why, and where¬ fore the materials of which our globe is composed, not only of inorganic matter, but also of every type and species of organic production, the how and wherefore— and especially of the astonishing connection between the materials composing both organic and inorganic cre¬ ation. When we shall have learned all these facts, we Avill have no difficulty in proving our first hypotheses by re\'ersed and alternate reasoning, a posteriori ad prius. This chapter on gold will therefore be better under¬ stood by those who have read with attention my chapter upon the “Eokmation of Eocks.” It is known by publications long years ago, that I not only claimed the aqueous instead of the igneous theory of the first forma¬ tion of the rocks; but I submitted my reasons for this theory: Not only in the well known spontaneous evidence of the alternate periodical jettings out of some of our globe’s safety-valves of torrents of liquid quartz, at Ice¬ land (the Geyser sirrings) and elseAvhere, also the water found in the middle of quartz crystals—especially in large as Avell as small geodes —being the supernatant water left, after all the crystalline agencies had been absorbed; and this said liquid flint having been thus deprived of the action of its crystalline law, has thus remained in the center of those geodes for many thou¬ sands of years ; shut up from any possible means of 3 evaporation tliroiig“li the wall of the quartzose geode. Water has also been recently found in tine inolecnlar divisions in granite by the aid of the microscox>e. The ^ ecart, not only in the formation of rocks and minerals ; but in all animally organized be¬ ings : And all x)hysicians should immediately understand this. See my chax^ter ux)on the anatomical structure, i)hys- iological develox)ment, &c. Silicates of lime and albumen, nitrous x>hosx)hates of ammonia ; electrical agencies of vital x>ower in the animal economy, as well as the vast quantity of spontaneous liquor of flint existent all over the world ; and taken ux> into the structures of Xdants and trees, as well as animals, and s])ontaneously also in the ocean taken ux) by the whole family Crustacea; to be again dex^osited in vast beds of silicious albumin¬ ates ; forming banks of coral rocks (so called); carbo¬ nate of lime is another formation; as metamorphic changes of rocks of that class prove. But our immediate subject is the formation and de- X>osit of gold in gold-bearing quartzose rock. The evi¬ dence of its x^rimary existence in an amorxhious unrecog¬ nizable condition (as gold) ; and how and why it, like all the baser metals in this x>articnlar, is a chemical result of long ages of changing cond)inations from the first gene- rated gases into semi-lluids, thence into semi-solids, thence by other ra])idly accumulating agencies into such vast de¬ posits of the latent combustive materials described in my lengthy chapter upon the OrUjinal Formation of the Foci's, Minerals, &c.; and the great variety of geological develop¬ ments by volcanic action, and the metamorxdiic changes ad interim ; and the second volcanic x^eriod which dex)os- ited gold in the various conditions, both free and in chemical combinations aforesaid —the latter conditions reciuiring the means of chemical decomx)osition, gather¬ ing, x^iirting, &c. When we look into and shall have satisfied ourselves with reference to the causes and 4 results of our conclusions ; aided as we all are by very many incentives to the proofs as to cause and effect ; we can easily account for all those heretofore unexplained phenomena ; as also how the gold-bearing seams (or lodes) became so formed in diagonal or transverse directions through the quartzose dykes, during their evident wind¬ ings, seethings, surgings, and contortions, when in a liquid state ; in which condition, laminar or homogene¬ ous, the seams aforesaid are evidently the filling in of cracks or fissures caused by cooling and shrinkage, where these fillings are upheavals from the still liquid compound far down toward the center of the globe’s vast cauldron : And crystallization was aided in these, as well as in the quartzose dykes, by heat. It is known to manyj that about four-fifths of all the rocky portion of our globe are quartzose sulphides, de¬ posits ; accompanied in most localities with all other mineral oxyds. If we strike a piece of quartz against a steel, the coucentrated frictional electricity not only emits fire, but a strong evidence of suli)hur is known to be present by the smell. The residuary reddish-yel¬ low powder (often found by the gold-miners) deposited in the fissures and small cavities of gold-bearing quartz, suggested the question to my mind that this was the supernatant sulphide, or sulphurous oxyd of gold, and experiments since have proved it. Fifteen years ago, I was intensely and inactically at work in the eftbrts of synthetically forming solids from their elementary sub¬ stances artificially prepared by me in this city, corner of Jane and Washington Streets, with a view of dissolv¬ ing gold-bearing quartzose sulphurets, through the agency of “superheated steam and carbon, together with the introduction of the smallest possible quantity of the cheapest solvent salts.” See the wording in my pamphlet, published in October 1850, and four columns and a lialf from my pen in the N. Y. Tribune, bearing date February 17th, 1857, accompanied with the spon¬ taneous eulogies of distinguished metallurgists upon my 5 practical productions up to that time. And it is well known to my learned friends, that I have been as ardently, enthusiastically, and practically at work ever since, to the completion and acme of my highest ambition; and upon which the reader will find in other chapters clearly defined and elucidated. In 1850 I filed in the Patent Office the mode of treat¬ ing ten tons at a time of gold-bearing sulphurets, in man¬ ner and construction of furnace and digester different, with the view of making sulphuric acid at the same time, entirely dispensing with the use of a retort. As my own cold porcelain, when hardened, resists the action of sulphuric acid, and the fact that sulphuric acid is carried to market and kept for any length of time iir green glass carboys, suggested the idea last above named. It was at the period last above named that I had become acciuainted with, and called into my aid and action, for the several last years, the services of Prof. A. L. Pleury, an educated gentleman and chemist of the University of Munich, in Bavaria. Prof. Pleury has been most of tlie time domiciliated with me, and con¬ stantly engaged, without loss of time, in metallurgic chemistry ; and part of the snmmer months practically engaged in the mines. Ilis printed reports in some of the mining Journals indicate and bring to the minds of many scientific men his industrial i)erseverance, as well as some new discoveries which will be interesting to introduce here, along with other instructive correlative facts pertaining to our subject. Prof. Pleury, in the introduction to his printed reports, first asks the all-inii)ortant (piestion, “ Why do our chem¬ ists find hundreds of dollars of gold per ton in ores Avhich, when worked at the mill, do not pay the expense of mining? “ There is no doubt there have been many swindles per])etrated upon the public, during the last gold mania, but I feel satisfied in my mind that many ores that are now deemed worthless, will enrich some men beyond their own expectations.” 6 It may be well to quote from Prof. Pleury’s lecture upon gold before the Historical Society at Boston, Mass., as reported of record and filed in the archives of that distinguished fountain of scientific knowledge. Dr. 0. T. Jackson, President; as also before the Polytechnic Asso¬ ciation of the Academy of Arts and Sciences at Oooi)er Institute in this city, which also met a cordial response from all the men of science present on that memorable night of March 12th, 1808. “All modern accounts agree in tracing the origin of gold to veins of quartzose and schistose character. Wherever gold is found, either in the sand of rivers, or in diluvial deposits, or in rocks, we ever find it enshrined, or, at least, in close proximity to silica, either as quartz or as clay slate, or as another more complex silicious combination. There are some exceptions, however, but these are few in number. “ Gold, in various proportion, is found in most of the metallic sulphurets, arseniurets, and other similar com¬ pounds, either combined or free ; but these are mostly embedded in quartzose veins, or disseminated in schis¬ tose rocks. “ In order to understand more fully why gold is found in the sulphurets and other analogous combinations, and these again are enclosed in quartz veins, we must trace out the origin of quartz itself. “We have here several pieces of quartz ; they all con¬ tain various metallic sulphurets, and some show traces of free gold, all of which are firmly embedded in the crystalline silicious mass. How did the sulphurets and the gold get into the quartz, and what agency forced the quartz through the fissures of the rocks ? “We all know that quartz is a product of aqueous and not igneous origin. We have ample proofs to that effect in the presence of volatile metals, such as anti¬ mony, arsenic, zinc, and others, also in the presence of water in geodes, and the close proximity to hydrated and carbonated minerals. The theory of the injection of 7 quartz as a glassy, highly-heated mass, by volcanic agency, has been superseded by the more sensible one of aqueous action. “ Eeading the clear and beautiful explanation given by Prof. Fremy, in Paris, of the origin of the Geyser springs, and studying over his experiments with bisul¬ phide of carbon on silica, alumina, etc., I could not help coming to the conclusion that nearly all quartz in nature oices Us existence to tJw decomposition of sulphide of silicium hj ivater. “ To make this idea clear, I must digress a little, and state my own views on the condition of the interior of our globe. “ Firstly, I believe in the existence of intense heat in the centre of our globe—a heat of such intensity that all the elements are thereby kept in an incandescent gas¬ eous condition. “Around the gaseous commingled matter I conceive, at first, a very liquid melted mass, attached to a half solid, somewhat plastic crust, which, as it gets farther from the centre, cools, and, in its ettbrt of expanding, breaks into fragments. The crust of our earth (probably forty miles in thickness), I conceive full of crevices and immense caverns, some of which, by i)assages of various dimensions, communicate with each other, and are ever changing, according to outward radiation of heat, con¬ densation, and cooling of matter."^ “For the sake of illustration, I will call granite npri¬ mary roch — though I think that many rocks of by far * I do not agree with my scientific friend with reference to forty miles’ thickness of the earth’s crust, or that there is anything like uniformity of thickness, or that all the centre is a molten mass; but that ignition exists wherever fissures admit communication of oxygenated gas from between cavities, and that these cavities are increasing as metallics oxydize and minerals decompose, and will finally deposit and accumulate vast and irresistible accessions to the superabundant latent combustive materials; and that this globe will be destroyed by increased and increasing volca¬ noes, at no very distant period ! See my chapter on “ The Formation of the Earth.” II-. 8 greater age than granite exist below, which to our surface rocks coinpare as our soil does to our oivn rocics. “ AVhen granite, or any other coinx)ound or simide sili¬ cate, is, while under pressure and a bright red heat, exposed to vapors of carbon and sulphur (both of which exist in abundance in the interior of our earth), the silica is decomposed : the oxygen of the silica combines Avith the carbon and forms carbonic oxyd and carbonic acid, Avhile the suli)hur seizes ui>on the silicium and forms sulphide of silicium, a white earthy mass, withstanding a great degree of heat. “ As the interior crust of our earth is continually acted 111)011 by cosmic disturbances, either by the gravitation of our own terrestrial substance, or by solar, lunar, or pla¬ netary influences, a gradual or sudden condensation, cooling, and breaking of the harder portions of the rocks takes place ; water riisliesinto the crevices, and, reaching the siiliihide of silicium and other sulphides, is instantly decomposed in its turn by the sulphide of silicium into oxygen and hydrogen. Sulphuretted hydrogen gas and a hydrate of silica are formed, both of which are soluble in water, and easily carried along by steam. The u])])er cavities, mostly tilled ivith water impregnated with car¬ bonic acid, which in itself is a great solvent and combining medium for metallic oxyds, such as Iron, Cop])er, and others (all of which, no doubt, exist dissolved in this water), are suddenly broken into by these Avater A^apors, carrying the hydrated silica and sulphuretted hydrogen Avith them, and the oxyds, hydrates, and other metallic solutions are broken up ; the suli)hur of the sulphuretted hydrogen seizes upon the metals, forms thereA\ith sulph¬ ides, and the aa hole mass is forced upwards, together Avith the liquid (piartz. The hydrated silica, carrying the hea¬ vier sulphuretted metals in the centre, comes in contact Avith the cool atmosphere and the cold sides of the crevices, and a gelatinization and gradual crystallization takes place—the sulphurets crystallizing in the quartz. “ I can reproduce, artificially, in a small A\ ay, AAdiat na- 9 tiire has done on a large, gigantic scale : I can heat granite to a white heat, expose it to tlie vapors of ]>isulplii(le of carbon, then treat the sulphides resulting therefrom by steam, and carry the hydrate of silica and sulphuretted hydrogen into a basin containing carbonate of iron or other metallic solution, when tlic silica will l)e seen to gelatinize slowly, and the sulphurets of iron or copper crystallize in the silica. After this digression we will return to our chief subject, gold. “I believe that gold is an elementary meUxlViG substance like iron, copper, zinc, etc., and have no faith in the alchemistic idea of commuting baser metals into gold, which idea, from time to time, reappears occasionally among the savans on the other side of the water.'^' (Perhaps no better origin could be ascribed to the element, gold, than that the President ruling the regions below has re¬ fined his own favorite beverage, hrimstone, into gold, and has presented it as a fit material for a golden calf to Moses and Aaron and our anxious bulls and bears of the gold-room.) “Experiments Avhich I have made in my own labora¬ tory, have led me to the following original ideas : “ 1. That gold exists in nature inolitical wind¬ mills, while the only correctives to the salvation of the country, the preservation of this once glorious Union, the perpetuity of American free institutions to the fu¬ ture safety of our children, are almost entirely lost sight of! See particulars ux>on this most important of all subjects at present, under its proper heading, where you will find the only correctives humbly submitted to every true intelligent American. But I must first dispose of the present subject, with such digressions (only) as have an illustrative tendency to a plain mat¬ ter-of-fact elucidation, as well as uncomprondsing ex¬ pose, of our whole subject. And I am bold to further state that our geological, mineral, and metalliferous theories, as heretofore taught and printed “/or the use of schools, colleges, dec.,” are based upon nonsensical error from the very foundation. And it appears to be high time that these vague, contradictory theories be brought out and exi)osed to the sunlight searching analyses of scientific investigation; submitting mine, with the “ipso dixit ” of every other claimant to other opinions, to test them and i)rove them practically and scientifically, both in analytical and synthetical reasoning from cause to efleet, and effect back to cause, submitting clear and une(iuivocal, practical and incontrovertible evidence. The ])resent 1ms got to become an age of facts, instead of the vague, old-fogy breath of guess-work of the teachings of our old masters or authors, who found it less trouble 3 IS to copy than to tliink for tlieinselves and reason for themselves, and work the nninher of necessary long' years before they can know, of a certainty, not only of the hows, whys, and wherefores — the generated laws and simnltaneons action in the first conglomeration and aggregation of the first elements of nature. The origin of all rocks and all minerals : And how “ With trees, and plants, and flowery birth, A naked globe he crowned. Ere there was rain to bless the earth. Or sun ” (did) “ warm the ground.” And last, not least (in the estimation of a few), of what materials ive ourselves are made, and by what laws are kept in motion — subject of thought, sympathy, devo¬ tion — some more, some less, some none at all, and say themselves cannot control—and prove it by phrenology. But see chapter on “Man,” as a inentcdhj as Avell as jdiysi- calhj organised l)eing, and what the inspired recorder meant to convey as to his divisions of time—and in the Hebrew—and how soon, in the same short account, he finds “ good gold in Havilah.” This, our i)resent subject, is that most attractive and most seductive of all elements, because of its most com¬ manding of all powers that be. Hence the wise man said that GOLD answereth to all things. Albeit among his many admonitions and cautions to the young man, on whom he more emphatically enjoins, among “ all his getting, to get understanding,” he (Solomon) exhibited in himself a great i)roclivity for gathering Gold. The same kind of ''good gold'' that Moses described to have been found in the land of "Havilah,’' in the same chaiher in which he says, “a mist went up from the earth.” This was the smoke of Geology’s great cauldron, after the general volcanic period Avhicli chemically refined and l)roduced nuggets as Avell as atoms of metallic gold, which Moses says Avas "good gold.” And noAV, as nug- 19 gets are few and far between, let ns see how, in what manner, they were produced, not only in Havilah of ^87Pt? Havilahs of this great American Pa¬ radise, with her almost countless millions of gold and silver—now, not only accessible by the Pacilic 11. 11. and branches, but by improved scientitic means of separating these inexhanstible supplies of tlie precious metals, from their heretofore detiatory hiding-places. But more es¬ pecially now that, in accordance with the anthem which rises away n])on the breeze, in (Eolian enchantment, sweei^ing across the La Platte, and echoing among the Pocky Mountains a response to the earliest sentiment and song which the morning sun of this, then, young and promising republic suggested to the, now,* wounded sx)irit of the American bard who wrote : “ The morning sun shines from the east, And spreads his glories to the west; All nations with his beams are blest Where’er his radiant light appears. So Science spreads her lucid ray O’er lands which long in darkness lay ; She visits fair Columbia, And sets her sons amongst the stars. Fair Freedom, her attendant, waits To bless the portals of her gates; To crown the young and rising States In glories of immortal dates.” It appears to have been the order of Providence that the opening out of scientitic discoveries, and progress and advancement of the arts, should first take their rise with the eastern sun, and spread Avitli him their glorious luminaries which have lit the ponderous wheels that are now rolling over the Pocky Mountains to the shores of the Pacific, laden with the products of the long and diligent toil of the philosopher, sparkling with * I have reference to the present cloud which hangs over the horizon of the political and moral, as well as the general portentous financial destiny of this great Republic. 20 the (liaiiioiuls of genius, and spiced Avitli tlie odors of Parnassus. There are now arising evidences of the most reciprocal responses in California, not only in xdiysical but mental, moral, and i)olitical distinction, whicli Avill come to the rescue, if the intelligence of the Atlantic States will but rouse themselves to a proper sense of true patriotic duty, and sx)eedily adoi)t the means of saving their country from i)ending anarchy and inevi¬ table disintegration. I will cite J. H. itay. Esq., known to hiine in San Francisco, Cal., for the last eighteen years, not only as one of the most enterprising men liv¬ ing, but for his honesty of i)urj)ose as well as thorough¬ ness of action. He wrote me that he had proven that “not a tithe of the gold is saved.” I hope he will excuse the liberty, but 1 cite him as an instaromnium of very many of our most useful and most x)roniising men in Cal. from the Atlantic States, who will at no distant day come in with money and gigantic intellects to the rescue and perx)etuity of the genius, the institutions of their country,* “ their home, their native land.” The facilities which the comx)letion of railroad con¬ nection between the two oceans will afford, will be incon¬ ceivably great for the developments of greater resources than ever belonged to any half a dozen nations of the earth before, especially the production of the precious metals, providing the means be adoi)ted to keep the gold in the country and the ways and means are in manu¬ script, and will form an interesting chapter to every American who has his country’s best interests at heart, and who wishes to i)reserve'and keep alive the genius of the republic, and perx)etuate her free institutions to his posterity. More of this anon. But now to the tirst getting the gold. (Mrs. Glass said, “First catch your rabbit.”) And in order to catch our gold, we must * Genii of American stamp, sealed witli tokens of hereditary crest, and strongly wrought the die that does the image bear; who will ever echo back to their Cradle of Liberty and Independence the song of their youth which I have revived on the 19th page to be loudly chtmted in the proud Temples of California. 21 hrst tiiid out, where that sparsely disseminated arti¬ cle is hidden in its heretofore detiatory matrix ; for gold ai)pears to x)ossess an innate, indescribable intelligence, not only after it conies from the mint, and finds cautions way into circulation, xdaying Mde-aml-ffo-seeic from tin boxes and old stockings into the vaults of the miser, thus acting ont the transmitted concei)tions of Dame Nature’s whole processes down to the full development and parturition of pure virgin gold. But it devolves upon me alone to explain its original capricious changes as to rule of choice in localities, during its chrysanralian changes from its nnrecognizable amorphous condition, as Avell as its determination to refuse the bait of quick¬ silver, so long as it chemically clings to its snlphnretted qnartzose mother. Onr business is also, as first above sta¬ ted, to present the result of the experience of those intelli¬ gent prospecters as well as iiractical workers—those whose reports are based ni)on comparative induction, after hav¬ ing spent years of trial in many ditferent localities in Cali¬ fornia, North Carolina, and then a year or two in the more recently discovered gold-bearing qnartzose rocks of Nova Scotia. They will tell yon of veUis or lodes of gold-bear¬ ing qnartzose rock of every conceivable a ariety of com¬ bination, besides snlphnrets of iron, titaiiite arsenite, &c., so common to California and North Carolina. They will also tell yon of the resistable Whenstone and shistose de¬ tiatory ores of all volcanic regions. They will tell yon of white quartz veins Avhere the iron has long since oxy- dized, and renders such a eins easily quarried. Why in A'eins, and Avhy the gold ia the veins ? (See my pam¬ phlet, “On the Formation of Eocks,” and yon will be l)roperly guided in your prospecting for gold-bearing quartz.) The object of this chapter is more to show in Avhat condition gold exists in all those veins of every name and description—the Avhy and wherefore of those ditterent conditions—the reasons Avhy miners luiA^e not been successful in getting a tithe of the gold by the usual processes of Avorking; albeit the chemical tests of the assayist had proven beyond all doubt the exist- 22 eiice of a good paying proportion of gold in tlie lode wliicli had so disappointed the disheartened worker. The reasons of these disappointments will be fully understood by reading Avith close attention my Avork upon the formations of the rocks and minerals, together with the deposits Avhich Anlcaidc action ])roduced, and the metaniorphic changes subsequent, by oxydizing and other elements, conduciA'e to the formation of me¬ tallic gold, Avhether free or in combinations aforesaid. Jlut as the mass of mankind care but little about causes, and a great deal about results, and in a special manner Iioaa^ to get the greatest possible amount of gold in the least ])ossible amount of time, and at the least possible outlay, I Avill say. Buy of me immediately one- third of all the rights of those recently issued patents in all California, including all the gold-bearing quartzose regions AA^est of the Eocky Mountains, and immediately begin to reap a harvest of inconceivable returns for your investment, not only in the gold direct from its ores, but from the residuary liquor of flint as a Mse for an income far greater than that of the gold, when used in the groAv- ing city of San Francisco, as well as all the minor toAvns and cities noAV springing up in the whole of that rapidly groAving country of all countries in the known Avorld. For the full exi)lanation and proof of the last asser¬ tion, you are invited to read the chapter upon moulding AAdiite flint marble (appended to this chapter). But before I take up this subject, by far more lucrative than getting out all the gold the rock contains, at CA’^en the small outlay Avhich the estimates by those said patents claim. And in order that all interested in gold mining may be fully posted in the comparative as Avell as relatiA'e ])ro- cesses of most of the systems and methods heretofore ])ursued by practical miners, I will here submit a recapit- idation of Prof. A. L. Fleury’s collected reports, as above stated. On the tAventy-fourth page of his reports Prof. F. says : “ 1 studied carefully the various processes in use, such as Keith’s, Whelpley and Storer’s, Dr. Hagan’s, Crosby 23 and Thompson’s, Dr. Ott’s, Eyason’s, and several others, all ot which are said to give perfect satisfaction. We Avill only give to them a rapid glance without comments. “ Tlie furnaces of Messrs. Whel^dey and Storer, in Bos¬ ton, have been described in most of onr mining journals ; they certainly look as if they could do some good work when i)roi)erly managed. The ore, finely pulverized in their centrifugal crushing and pulverizing machine, is blown, together with charcoal powder, down a vertical shaft or tower, the gases condensed, and then treated for the difterent metals. Keith oxydizes the i)ulverized sul- phurets by air in an upward or horizontal direction. Crosby and Thomi3son do the same in a revolving retort; they condense most of the volatile products. (I learned lately that they get from the condensed smoke as much gold as they extract from the roasted ore.) “ A very neat arrangement for roasting has been pat¬ ented, and is now being tested in Washington, D. 0., by Dr. Adolph Ott, of this city. The sulphurets pass suc¬ cessively through three separate superposed furnaces, in which automatic stirrers keep the ore in motion, and cause it to fall from one oven into the other, receiving three successive treatments, by which the ore is fully decomposed. The lighter metals, zinc, antimony, ar¬ senic, and bismuth, are condensed in separate chand)ers, and the suli)hurous gases subjected to a spray before they are allowed to escape through the chimney. Tlie desulphurized ore is then moistened by steam, and placed into a large tank, where it is treated with oxycliJorine gas, which rapidly converts the present gold into a soluble salt, the terchloride of gold—Au CF—which is leached out afterwards, either by pressure or by a centrifugal machine. The solution is then treated with sulpliate of iron, or other precipitant, and the pure gold taken from- it as a dark browii powder. Tliis is quite an improve¬ ment on Prof. Plattner’s successful chlorination process, and shows that the originator nnderstands what he is about. This process is also adapted for the treatment of silver ores. 24 Dr. Hagan's (lesnlpluiriziiig’ ])rocess with hydrogen gas and carbonic oxyd and acid; i)roduced by previous decomposition of steam by carbon, is, as 1 learn, worked (piite successfnlly for two years past in i)oth Grasse Valley, Nevada Co., California, and riymonth Ledge, in the same State. The Earelia or Byason ])rocess is also said to work well in the Mariposa State, in California. In this process, I learn, the disintegration, desulphuriza¬ tion, and extraction of gold by amalgam, are all pro¬ duced by the action of heated steam and mercury vapor on the ore wliile in a closed vessel, and the tailings run over a peculiarly constructed shacking table, so as to concentrate all the amalgam. “ We will now ])ass finally to another system, the smelt¬ ing method. AVhen a rich gold ore is heated in a rever¬ beratory or other furnace, and an appropriate material as flux added, the ore melts with it to a lujuid mass, in which the specifically heavier gold will collect, melt, and sink to the bottom. Soda, lime, oxyds of iron have been extensively used, and some to great advantage. By my experiments Avith the so-called iStevens jinx —the residuum from the cryolite Avheii Avorked for soda—I liaA^e been brought to the neAv idea that gold must exist in nature as a silicate of the oxyd of gold, chemically combined, for, by treating the same ore Avith other agents (fluxes that do not/a/by decomi)ose silica), I could not obtain the same results. “ This Stevens flux is superior to the natural fluor-spar, because it contains free oxyfluorine gas, Avhich has been absorbed by lime in a similar AA ay as chlorine is taken up by it in the bleaching i)OAvder, hence its greater efli- ciency. “ The fluorine has such affinity for the silica that it leaA^es the calcium, drives off the oxygen, and combines with the silicium to form fluor silicium and fluosilicic acid. The calcium takes up the oxygen, and forms lime. “ Thave lately seen some astonishing rOvSiilts jwoduced by the use of this flux Avith NoAn Scotia and Georgian ores. 25 “Mr. H. G. Hubert, of this city, has recently patented a system ot turnaces, in which he uses a mixture of flux and ore as continuous lining of the furnaces (either cupola or reverberatory), with an impervious carbon- bottom. This system cannot tail to come into use when this peculiar method of smelting shall have been better known and appreciated. “From the foregoing pages you will see that I have taken some pains to keep posted ; I may add that during the last three years I have visited many mines, mills, and metallurgic establishments, and have made numer¬ ous experiments in my own laboratory. Taking all points, the defects as well as advantages of the afore¬ mentioned processes, into consideration, I have followed an entirely distinct road to arrive at long-desired results —the extraction of all the gold, with the uiost advan¬ tageous utilization of the refuse. “ By a series of new processes, recently seCTired by let¬ ters patent, I can not only obtain a complete solution of the quartzose ores in ivaier, hut also a complete chemical decomposition of the silica itself, so as to eliminate all that gold that has hitherto been lost, because I believe that it exists in the quartz in chemical combination. “ Tlie best feature, however, and that which distin¬ guishes this process from the old quartz-dissolving x>i*o- cesses, is that the hydrate of silica which I obtain (having no alkali), and which I receive as refuse, can be used for something better than for adulterating soaj), and is worth at least one dollar a gallon, if sold only for a fire, water, and weather-proof paint, to say nothing of its use in tlie manufacture of cast {not compressed) jlint-marhle, in the shape of statuary, fountains, mantels, tables, monu¬ ments, floors, and ornaments of all kinds.” Prof. Fleury closes his lecture in an eulogy upon me, and refers those whose interest he may have awakened to these subjects, to myself, as the only one who is au¬ thorized to either sell or work his patents. Ft is now my business to describe and fully elucidate both our modes of o])erating and estimates of same. 4 COMBINED riiOCESSES FOR M'ORKING GOLD ORES, AND USING THE LIQUID SILICA IN THE ARTS. Tlie American patents, in wliicli an interest is offered, cover the following- operations : 1. Complete desnlpliurization of i)yrites and metallic snlplmrets. 2. Tlie extraction of gold and silver from desnlplinrized ores or tailings by a new system of amalgamation. 3. The solution and chemical decomposition of the qiiartzose gold ores in the Avet way, and Avithont the use of either soda or potassa, by an entirely iieAV process. 4. The ntilization of the refuse material for hre-proof porcelain paint, floors, pavements, and all kinds of ornamental stone and marble Avork. 5. The mannfacture of sulphide of silicium and hydrate of silica, Avith its many uses, either made from sand, silicates, or quartz, and utilizing the sulphur ob¬ tained by the desulphurization of the sulphurets. We Avill consider the adAnntages of these processes over all others now in use, and speak: 1. Of the System of Desulphurization .—In our com¬ bined in'ocess AA^e desul])hurize the ores in a complete manner, because AA^e first bring the ground sulphurets in close and most intimate contact with carhon and hydro- yen, Avhereby the various complex sulidiur combinations are broken up into more simple compounds, and are, Avhen the ore is treated Avith alternate jets of air and steam, made mncli more ready to give off all the sul])hur, Avhile the gold is kept back Avith the carbon. 2. The Extraction of Gold hy Amalgamation is per¬ formed by passing, by hydrostatic pressure, the puWerized 27 ore* after it lias either heen treated with chemicals, or been desulphurized, in contact tvith hot water, and thor¬ oughly stirred, thiiougii a heated hath of mercury, briug- iiig thereby the water as well as every particle of ore into close contact with the mercury. We use no copper plates, and have our apparatus so arranged that the mercury that carries the gold floivs hy its otvn iveight into a retort, where, by a simple vacuum arraiigemeut, the mercury is distilled hach again from whence it came, and the gold and silver are left in the retort. This is all done automatically, and without additional cost. One luachiiie, capable of treating 10 tons of ore per day, with only one man (at a cost of 50 cents per ton), can be constructed/or S1,000. A portaMe machine, connected Avith a five horse-power engine, Avith a capacity to Avork 10 tons of taiLugs jier day, can be made/or $2,000. 3. The is^EAV quartz-dissolving process differs from all others in several distinct features: (ci) We use neither soda nor qwtassa. (b) We do not only liquidize the quartz in water, but decompose chemically the silica as well as silicates, and thereby liberate not only the free gold, hut get also that which in many ores is chemically comhined and locked up in the refractory matrix, (c) The refuse, the liquid, from Avhich, by ])assing it through my amalgamator, “Ave lirst abstract all the gold,” is not throivnaivay, hut utilized by Mr. Hardinge in various ways. One ton of quartz yields about 000 gallons of a hydrate of silica, Avhicli Avhen mixed l)roperly Avith other tons of puh^erized silica and the right (piantity of crystallizing agencies, forms Avith them a cheap and jire-proof porcelain paint, and suiiersedes the * Let it be also remembered tliat my recently improved Pestle-^Iill, combining every advantageous power—viz., a circular inclined plane and pullics—strikes eight hundred blows per minute, will do three times the work of any other, and delivers the pulverized ore in the center, like a flouring mill. I must here enter my disclaimer against all iron or steel mills. So long as quartz will grind a cast-steel ax, so long will quartz grind chilled iron or cast-steel quartz mills.— JIardinge. 28 further use of linseed oil or white lead or spirits of tur¬ pentine. This alone, without mentioning the adaptability of this liquid for the manufacture of ornamental flint marhle, by casting the liquid, mixed with sand and lU’oper crystallizing agents, into molds like i^laster of Paris, gives to the hydrate of silica a value of at least $1 iwr gallon. The vrofit derived from the sale of this article is hy far greater than the cost of treating the quartz, and if we take into consideration the facility with which select quartz can be shipx)ed to Boston and Neiv Yorh from Nova Scotia and the Atlantic coast and Central America, and the de¬ mand for fire, ivater, and rot-qyroof paint and moulded stones, statuary, fountains, floors, roofs, pavements, etc., we cannot but feel confident of the success of this our enter¬ prise. 4. The treatment of x)ure silica by the last-named sulphide of silicium process, for the puri)ose of obtaining a pure quartz solution, a hydrate of silica without alhali (the water supplanting the base), has still another and very valuable advantage, for by it all the sulphur that is ejected by the desulphurization of the sulphurets is therein utilized. From this very condensed statement, it can be seen that these combined processes show: 1. Great economy, because nothing is lost; all the refuse is made valuable. 2. Great saving of time and labor. 3. Effectiveness and increased yield of precious metals over and above other processes, because, as the silica that holds the gold either in fine ditfusion or chemical com¬ bination is in this x)rocess completely decomposed, all the gold can be extracted. 4. An unpkecedented Profit. The utilization of the hydrated silica, as well as of all the oxyds, vapors, etc., can clear a large profit, and reduce the expense of extracting the gold from a ton of ore (which will cost about $10 a ton) actually to nothing ; for the sale of 20 the liquid from the working of one ton of ore can scarcely bring less than $900 ! What hiisiness, ive aslc, can exhibit such revenue f I am now making arrangements for bringing rich gold-bearing quartz from Nicaragua, Central America, to New York, and also from Nova Scotia to Boston. JNIy object is, first, to dissolve the quartz, and secure all the gold ; secondly, to make hundreds of thousands of gallons of the only article of liquor of flint tit to use as a base for the purposes aforesaid, and hereafter x>crfectly described. And in order to give a clear and correct un¬ derstanding of what I mean, I will first announce in this department tliat it is knoAvn to very many that whole cargoes of white sand (or in scientific language, granu¬ lar quartz or silica) are being Aveekly brought down the Hudson Elver to New York city and Brook¬ lyn, for making flint glass; and that inexhaustible banks of tliis sand, pure snow white silica, have been recently found in various places and at different i)oints in the United States, liandy to easy transj)ortation by navi¬ gation ; and because of competition in seeking a mar¬ ket, 1 am ottered this beautiful, i)ure granular quartz, as white as the imrest snow, for a small price per ton. Now be it known and well remembered that, by the working of the patents hereinbefore mentioned, I dis¬ solve one ton at a time, either of this said granular (piartz, or of the crushed gold-bearing white quartz of Central America or from Nova Scotia: Every ton of quartz thus dissolved in water, through this new j^ro- cess, viz., by sulxdiide of carbon first forming sulidiide of silicium, thence into liquor flint; the quartz rock held in i)erfect solution in water at very little cost. Nine hundred gallons of this said liquor siliccii will weigh about live tons. These live tons of liquor of flint, together Avith other crystallizing agents, form the l>ase to mix with several other tons of the crude snoAv-Avhite sand above described, and cast into moulds Avithout heat or pressure, in the same manner as gypsum is cast in 30 moulds. And iiotAvitbstanding it is the crude white sand which constitutes the major part of the entire Avhite liint statue, obelisk, bust, cornice, bracket, archi¬ trave, lintel, mantel, or the thousands of things thus cast in moulds, the surface will always correspond with ' the mould. If the mould be as smooth as glass, the cast¬ ing will be the same. If, on the contrary, a colossal statue is to be cast, the nioidd will be made to cor¬ respond with the iritted surface of same as in the chis¬ eled statue of colossal size. But in all cases the li(pidr of flint base (together with its crystallizing agent) tills all interstices, and hence, I repeat, that the surhice is as smooth as the mold can be made of any ordinary material. The castings are all in the cold, wet ivmj, and ivithoiit pressure. Flat surface cast¬ ings tind their own polish level, as smooth as a looking glass, and when hardened, cannot be scratched with emery. All obelisks, or allegorical sacred devices, with their respective pedestals and entablatures, plain or in lasso-relievo, to be introduced into cemeteries, impervious to all weather for centuries. AVhereas our Vermont statuary marble, being a soft carbonate of lime, begins to decompose in three years. Pure silica, first held in solution in water, by the processes hereinbefore described, and then prepared with the necessary crystallizing agencies, will, in obe¬ dience to its first law of crystallization, form a base which fastens upon the granular silex (or sand), taking up the exact amount of water of crystallization belong¬ ing to the original formation of quartz rock described in my chapter upon “The Original Formation of Bocks,” &c., and it is just at the moment when the process of crystallization begins that the batch is turned into the molds. I will here remark that while the laws of tlie crystallization of quartz are the same, yet the action varies as to the time, in accordance with combinations, &c. The reader of this prospectus is referred to the proofs submitted at my lectures some years ago upon 31 the oriolnal formation of the rocks, proving that fonr- hfths of the rocky portions of our globe were of quartz- ose formation ; and of aqueous and not igneous origin. It has cost the writer of this iwospectiis eigliteen years of ardent study, together with thousands of ex¬ periments in so concentrating the i)rocesses that they will develop combinations of quartz, flint, or silica, in floral organisms, as well as rocks. The last five years of dense thought, untiring zeal, and unceasing labor, have resulted in the production of moulded ta¬ bles of snow-white flint marble ; into whicli are simul¬ taneously cast liquid mineral oxyds of such chosen colors as will so arrange themselves through and tlirough tlie white table bed (while it is also in a liquid state) ; that the colors, being also taken up by the same crystal¬ line vehicle, spontaneously form in vines and flowers in the most natural directions, and alternate forms and en- twinations, without my guidance or interference ; occu¬ pying not over fifteen minutes in forming a slab or table of any shape. All of which become a homogeneous flint, which appears to have been quarried out of a fossilized flower garden ; retaining all their bright colors and neu¬ tral tints with buds and green leaves ; not only upon the surface but the same natural phenomena i)ervade through the entire slab, or urn, or bathing-tub, or anything else designed for palatial grandeur. Tables of malachite are as quickly and cheaply formed as anything else, with the trifling exception of the gTcen mineral oxyds forming the coloring. See the diftereiice in the cost of these with the Eussian malachite. See a very small stand-to}) of the latter at the far-famed store of Messrs. Ball, Black & Co., “price $400 in gold.” Now, it will have been discovered by the intelligent reader, that we mold our rocks, from their original ele¬ ments, into synthetical solids in any form we desire ; and when they are taken from the molds they are as smooth as glass, i)roviding the mold is smooth ; notwithstanding the main body of the material is the crude white sand. 32 It is the crystallizing’ agent in the liquor of flint which coinifletes the solid in the interstices, and hence the smoothness of the surface. If these statements are true, then we think the im¬ portation from Italy of statuary inarhle, at such high prices in the rough blocks, and the everlasting sawing, chiseling, pecking, grinding, and flnishing, for months together, and sometimes for a year or more, upon one design, Avill shortly be superseded, and the great num¬ ber of marble-yards uoav in the United States will have been reduced to a dozen works, which can supply the en¬ tire demand at one (piarter the price, and a better and more durable snoiv-white silicio^is marNe, saying nothing of the unrivaled beauty in tables, etc., before described. And now, with reference to casting the onyx, the sar¬ donyx, the cameo, and others, in medallion, or other di¬ visions, with the white in l)asso-relievo, either small or large, colossal when set in entablature in the flnish of grand monuments or ])alatial buildings. These are cast as readily as though all were one color, by merely invert¬ ing the mold, and cast the white relief in a medallion head, or other ornamental iwojection ; then turn in the next color, and when your design is turned out of the mould, your joint is as perfect as a liquid level can make it; and this is the way the original were deposited in lamina, but not in molds ; and hence the great trouble of the lapidary to give us the design in bas-relief. Having submitted a comprehensive expose of the most weighty department of my intended business, so far as avoirdui)ois is concerned, it comes within my iwovince to now explain an inconceivable additional claim u])on us, as soon as our works shall have been put into operation. Our said liquor of flint, when mixed with the snitable material to form cold porcelain, and thi^ spread upon walls, will immediately harden into a perfectly white porcelain, and will resist everything that ])orcelain re¬ sists. Wlien colors are required in neutral shades, the right kind of mineral oxyds will be kept by us, Avith 33 • directions to the j)ainter. The Italian and other fresco painters will be supplied also. The painters and grainers will be supplied with the suitable semi-transi)arent oxyds which work with our liquor of flint, such as burnt terra de sienna and terra de cassel for mahogany, and unburnt umber for oak, same for maple, satinwood, etc.* All houses will^be fire-proof throughout. And when we remember the cheapness of our material, we must predict the immediate end to the demand for white lead or zinc white, linseed oil, spirits of turpentine, copal varnish, etc. We shall furnish a suitable cold porcelain to be cast one inch thick ui^on floors, with instructive designs for either mosaic or cari)et-like colors. Also, for roofs, white, with the coarser white sand sprinkled upon them ; they will resemble snow-crust in appearance ; are also tire-proof, and the best non-conductor; will also have a tendency to keep the chambers cool. In conclusion, I am bold to announce that when men shall learn to build and carry out the determination with^ reference to the flre-i)roof finish, we shall cease to read the almost daily reports of the losses of millions of dol-' lars by fire. In my recent visit to Boston, where I was invited to lecture upon the “Original Formation of the Kocks,” and the progressive developments of floral and animal organisms ; through what laws and agencies the sixty- five elements of matter were generated, throughout the six divisions of time, up to the Adamic period, etc., and having been cordially invited before several of the halls of science in our modern Athens, it may be well to sub¬ mit some of the evidences of approbation there. * Grainers will be instructed in the production of an artificial stone tieneer upon doors, &c., in variegations, representing the “ knarled oak ” (Pollard oak). No blaze of fire will have any effect upon those porcelain veneers. They are also impervious to the weather or friction; hence, very durable. 5 34 REPORT OF A COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE LEGISLA¬ TURE OF MASSACHUSETTS. The foiloTving’ is a synopsis of the evidence submitted to the undernanied in their official investigations into the merits, value, and promise of extent of revenue to the State of Massachusetts, should the charter be granted to incorporate the “Boston White Flint-Marble Com¬ pany,” under proper restrictions, and under the super¬ vision of Messrs. Hardinge, Fleury, and their associates. “Mr. Hardinge appeared in person before us, and minutely explained the results of long years of experi¬ ments in his peculiarly manufactured Inpiid quartz, or liquor of flint, as it is generally termed, some of which he presented before us as clear as water. He turned out some of this Jiqiiid flint, and before our eyes formed it into a semi-solid, and from thence into a solid semi-transimrent stone, resemblincf opaf. “ He then produced specimens of ivhite stone which lucre evidently cast in moulds. “ He then showed us plain pieces which had been cut into shape with a knife when in a soft state, but which would ring when struck, and appeared flint-like in hard¬ ness. “ He then showed us others which were colored. To the reality of which. Prof. Clark, of Amherst College, and member of the Massachusetts Legislature, in his own person before us declared, not only tjiat he had proven that the material ])resented to us was what it claimed to be, but that it demanded our a])probation, and the official attention of the Legislature. “ Other persons of high standing and respectability, have been before us in relation to this subject, and we have therefore reported accordingly, and hoi)e and trust that the proper charter will be granted.” 4 35 The committee appointed by the Senate and House of Eepresentatives consisted of lion. Messrs. Pond and CnASE, of the Senate, and Messrs. Pollard, Patch, WosoN, Neediia^m, and Staat, of the House of Eepre¬ sentatives. I subsequently received the following letter: “Boston, May 1, 1807. “Prof. B. Hardinge : Dear Sir ,—It affords me great ideasure to testify to the value of the discovery you have made, of a process for dissolving silica, and using the solution as a cement for uniting particles of sand, gravel, and even small stones, into a linn and durable mass, which may not improperly be called “Hint marble.” This marble, if made of white Berkshire sand, may be as beautiful as the purest Italian statuary, and yet remain entirely unalfected by exposure to our severe New England climate. “But by marvellous ingenuity you have devised means for imparting to this spotless stone any desired tint of color, which may be either dittused equally throughout the mass, or distributed in bands and veins. “The value of the ‘flint marble’consists, however, largely in its capability of being cast in moulds, i)recisely like gypsum. “ Theflgures thus formed take the polish of the mould, and ])ossess the hardness of flint and agate. “I am confldent that, under suitable management, a very profitable and extensive business might be built ui) upon the basis of your discovery. “AVith best wishes for your success, I remain, very truly yours, “W. S. CLAEK, “ Professor of Chemistry in Amherst ColleyeP I will here state, that notwithstanding the stringent law passed by the last session, making it the imperative * This gentleman is not only a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, but kno^v^l to fame for his scientific skill and ability as a chemist. 36 duty to grant no charter unless it be clearly and une¬ quivocally shown that such charter shall be for a truly practical, iwofitable, and i^raiseworthy object; hence the special investigation above alluded to. The following is the title of the charter which has just passed and signed by Governor Bullock: CH AETEE. COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. In the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty- seven. An Act to incorporate “The Boston White Flint Marble Company.” Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled., and by aiUhority of the same., as folloivs: Section 1. Benjamin Hardinge, * * * * [Here follows the charter in “due form”], signed as follows: In House of Representatives., May 29, 1867, passed to be enacted. JAMES M. STONE, Speaker. In Senate^ May 29, 1867, passed to be enacted. JOSEPH A. POND, President. May 30, 1867. Approved, ALEX. H. BULLOCK. Having thus prepared the way in Boston, for the supply of the New England States, with the view of organizing a company at no distant day, after the busi¬ ness shall have been established in New York (my resi¬ dence being here), I hereby respectfully submit these (with the following) pages not only to the speculative and curious, but to the careful attention and closest criti¬ cism of the learned, the wise, and most intelligent savans of this age of scientific investigation. See Appendix, APPENDIX. I will now append a few remarks as an epitome —a recapitulation of some original points of interest to in¬ telligent readers. Albeit, the class of men who are prac¬ tically engaged in scientific pursuits is small; but, nevertheless, the intelligent masses are waking up to an unprecedented inquiry, not only in relation to their own anomalous compound as a pliijsicalhj and mentally organ¬ ized being, but of what materials we are made, and by what laws are kept in motion, and what our world is made of and kept in motion, and when and where trees come from J and what they are, and of what every indi¬ vidual thing is combined and hoAV, without the trouble of much study or of inpch thinking. Unless new things are presented upon vehicles of familiar thoughts and ex¬ citing similitudes, in common homiletic language, and (as my scientific friend. Prof. A. L. Fleury, has told you), 1 have an irresistible propensity to illustrate the most abstruse scientific subject by some amusing anecdote— because my judgment and experience tell me that I sacri¬ fice dignity for the benefit of my inquiring neighbor or intelligent friend. Albeit, there are and always have been, and always will be stony ground hearers, at all lec¬ tures or homiletical sermons. These but eat, drink, sleep and die—to manure a crop of Ulte transmissions! Put these pages are dedicated to a very large class of progressive intelligences ; and aside from my more im¬ portant objects of presenting the foregoing pages to the public, and more especially to the dearly bought intelli¬ gence of practical gold-miners and their associated capitalists ; also aside from the greater, and by far the 38 most lucrative as well as the most extensive in prospectn, viz: the monlding into synthetical solids the white flint, &c., &c., described in these pages last aforesaid, thus util¬ izing' the liquor of flint in forming the base of the vastly extensive and vastly varied business last described. Aside from all this, there exists another prompting to all the foregoing exidanations, and that consists in the fact that common observation, together with the meagre history of the past relative to the subjects of my long- years of ardent investigations, always accompanied with thousands of practical experiments ; the result of those long years of incessant toil in heretofore unexplored fields, floods and caves of geological mysteries; from Avhich explorations and tested facts I am now able to l)resent a Geological Text Book, for the use of Schools^ Colleges and Academies. See my Hand-Book upon the “Formation of the Earth,” origin of the rocks, trees, plants and animals—the progressive types of the latter, their alternate developments by culture, climate, trans¬ mission of qualities, &c,, &c., from the first formation of our globe into a gaseous nebul?|, thence into a semi¬ fluid, thence fluid, thence semi-solid, through those first generated elements which generated the laAvs i)rogres- sively and simultaneous in their action in the said pro¬ gressive accumulation and atomic aggregation of matter: And the time and times (upon scientific calculations) from the first nebulous formation to the close of the first creative ^Ajome'^ or creative division of the ^Ajomimfi^ or six creative divisions (recorded by the inspired Moses in the Hebrew^ language), together with my owm inter¬ pretations not only of the number of thousands of years in the aggregate down to our iwesent or final day of anofher deposit of combiistive agents, w'hich w lien sufficiently combined with the now immense amount of latent spontaneously deposited volcanic agents, now^ be¬ ginning to be heard and felt in certain new localities, and admonish us that they are the certain signal-guns, in¬ creasing ''eartliqnalxes in divers filaces ” prior to the univer¬ sal roar of God’s own artillery! There will be a suffoca- 39 tion of every breathing animal; who in the last effort to escape affrighted from the nearest volcano, which shall have buried a city, a forest or a village in its resistless vortex, will fall lifeless by the inhalation of carbonic oxyd. See whole explanations, with causes and effects a iiriori ad ])osterius^ with scientific i)roofs which are minutely presented, and the consequent reasons. A posteriori ad jrriiis, for the sure and certain results last aforesaid, fully explained and exemplified in my said coming book above mentioned, which will be found along with this and two other books (from my exclusive pen) in every principal book store in New York city, explanatory of all; together with the time, &c. Fear not yet, my awakening reader ! you and I have time, perhaps, to further usefulness in this little world of ours before the final consummation just laintly alluded to. I say little world, because it is very small in comparison to Jupiter; but I find it big enough for my full comprehension—don’t you? espe¬ cially as the time allotted to you and me,- and all the rest of us, is too short to fill up any more than a small por¬ tion of those progressive susceptibilities which God in his goodness has vouchsafed to man. But there is hope in a future progressive sublimity of the liberated soul (when those terrestrial cords are cut), shall soar away on ui)per spheres, from anxious cares and tears, entering into that unknown transition of new^ s})iritual suscepti¬ bilities of sublimer themes than belong to men to attemi)t to describe, l)ut which we may presume to suppose are also progressive in their approach toward God’s own in¬ telligence, as long as ^immortality endures A But excuse me patient, or impatient, reader, as the case . may be. Our occupations while here are terrestrial though varied. It is written that “by the sweat of his face man shall eat his bread and every philosoi)her knows that if he don’t sweat by locomotive action, he will not enjoy eating very long. Therefore let us keep to our subject. Thomas Dilworth, in his elocutionary elements and 40 lessons in brevity of speech and writing, illustrates not only the latter scriptural idea by— “ Go to the plough or team, the hedge or ditch ; Some honest calling use, no matter which but our said very old master, Thomas Dilworth, in his interdicting the too frequent use of the ^conjunction “and,” happened to illustrate by the following sentence: “Nature clothes the Beasts with hair, the Birds with featherSy ‘ and ’ the Fishes with scales y Our veneral)]e old master Dilworth’s book (in octavo, calf bound, with all its contents and copper line engravings), though out of i)rint for the last half century, left valuable as well as lasting imiwessions. But Mr. Dilworth did not tell us how nature clothed the heasts with hairy the hirds with feather Sy and the fishes with scales. I presume Mr. Dilworth did not know : and a further evidence tliat he (or others) did not know, was, that had he known, he could have given us a much longer column of illustrations before it was necessary to write the “aad” before the last illustrative noun. And as nobody has either carried out the catalogue or told us hoiv dame ^^Nature^^ does those things, 1 will exx)lain, as far as space will permit, the how, why and wherefore “ sulphide of silicium ” (or “liquor of flint ”) is both eaten and drank by men and all other animals, and also drank and absorbed by all trees and xflants, all the Crustacea family from infusoria to mammoth bivalves, to build up in laminae the stone houses of the latter, the framework and table-i)lated epidermii of the bones and teeth, lami¬ nated horns, hair, nails, &c., of animals, tlieonijx^ that * “ Onyx ” is tile Hebrew as well as tlie Greek word for horns and nails of animals. The insjiired Moses saw in liis vision, and wrote of the neic genera {mammalia) of docile, ruminating, horned and hoofed quad¬ rupeds, for man’s domestic control as well as food. In contradis¬ tinction from the millions of ferocious dragon and crocodilian genera^ forty feet in length, as now proven (by their petrified remains) to have existed through the long carbonic period: But all destroyed by the uni¬ versal volcanic action from which “ A mist went from the earthy’'"' &c. See ray lectures upon the “ Fonnation of the Earth.” 41 the inspired Moses alluded to in his ermtire account (see the Hebrew and Greek); also in forming the elongated hexigon- formed fibre of trees, stalks and grass, the supernatant residuum (in obedience to a law in the physiology of all), thrown to the surface to he further carbonized, &c., so that the enamel thus deposited upon the surface .of the Malacca cane of your great grandfather, and the enamel of his teeth and razor-hone and gun-flints, the vegetaMe ivory thimble of your grandmother, are results of the spontaneous existence of “sulphide of silicium.” Thus while you now' eat green corn,” you eat a\\ the silica w'hich (had it been left ui)on the stalk) would have formed the flint coating, like other cereals, as w'ell as their stalks, and of every spear of grass, to produce and reproduce the bony framew ork and cartilaginous tissues, &c., of animals. My relation of an illustrative anecdote before the “ Massachusetts Historical Society,” in answ^er to a ques¬ tion put to me by the President, I)r. Jackson, will admirably explain our subject. It has never been printed, excepting in the reports of record in the archives of said Institute, in accordance w ith a resolution passed on said occasion. Albeit, it is not the printing of these, or any other facts or theories of mine now coming out before the great critical world of scientific investigation ; hut facts proven constitute the motto Magna est veritas et prevale- hitf w hile all unproved theories only fill up the budget of confused false teachings, which it becomes the duty of every scientific man to empty out, unravel, search, analyze, and i^resent an expose of reasoning upon defia- tory scientific arguments. But to our “anecdote,” W'hich, in short, illustrates four or five iuii)ortant scien¬ tific points, then, as well as now in question: It was in 1854 that a selected specimen of gold- hearing quartz w^as presented before the dilated eyes of eighteen enterprising young ^^ew Englanders, w'ho, tempted by the most seductive of all attractions, left their and sw'eethearts ea route overland via the ''South G 42 Prtss,” Eocky Mountains, wliere, their weary limbs to rest, (bivouaced for the night under a projecting ledge, during a thunder-storm,) * * * * By westward current stream, ^ Through dreary night by hunger press’d, “ And ‘ Salem ’ was the mournful theme ” of him, the chosen pilot; while three hardy ship-builders from Barnstable were dreaming of doubling Cape Horn in a gale of wind, with the extinguishing light of hope glimmering upon a far, distant promontory; another dreams of ballasting a sliij) with gold-bearing quartz; while one from Boston dreamed of breaking his (Maine- law) ])ledge in the rain, up a dark alley in Winter Street; another from Lynn, dreamed of steam-tanned calf-skin, split-leather and wet feet; another of a choir-service and the loud peal of the organ i)rei)aratory to starting the “judgment-anthem,” when the lightning struck the steeple-rod and passed fluid into the ground and water all around liim ; another from Chicodee Factory, dream¬ ing of his (imitation) Scotch gingham,* and why the rain brought down upon his hands the black suli)hate of iron, besmearing the remains ot‘his coarse, tattered, and button¬ less bob-tailed gray (all of which he had bought on the exi)ensi\ e side of expensive Broadway). At daylight the storm was over and gone, and some dreamed of coming thanksgiving and quiet doxologies, others of retreat¬ ing deer across the interminable La Platte ; when they * Can anybody tell why we must send our cotton to Manchester (Eng¬ land) or to Glasgow, or anywhere else across the Atlantic, to have it dyed in fast colors for our umbrellas ? While England, France, and Germany give us of their richest textile fabrics in cotton, silk and linen, they impose u])on us in woolen beyond ordinary power of conception. They spin their coarsest wool into a fine thread ; it makes an apparently fine flannel; it i§ well dyed; the nap is raised with teazles; an oil finish makes it look like what it is marked with white silk letters, superjine,''^ and invoiced low for the American marhet. So much for our “ Broadcloth ” that wears out in three months! 43 were suddenly aroused by tlie flai)i)iiio' wings of a large flock of wild turkeys from a stream (containing gold- bearing quartz pebbles)' into the top of a tree directly over their heads. The gastric juices prompted the order of effects from their rifles, and down fell two of their suriu’ised visitors. “Let us see what they eat,” said Hancock Beals, as he turned out the crop. “Yes,” said Quincy Adams Lapham. “ Oh ! fire, love and hominy, here’s gold specks in all them gravel-stones!” as he exhibited an ovoid pebble an inch long and as large at one end as the little linger. “ So there is in mine ; look at ’em all! By hokey we’ll carry them as a curiosity.” And they did bring them home. But that “curiosity,” that very suggestive “ Ureka” ! That most marked though accidental index to the inquiry, viz : what did the rest of that flock of wild turkeys do with all the gold-bearing quartz-pebbles so (juickly picked up by them ? JS 2 )irit of old Master Dihcorth! of the last century’s teachings,—that “nature clothes the birds feathers,'^ —if you had but said clothed with “sulphide of silicium,” or li(pior of flint, and told us all about the facts that, albeit, the hlrds all have quartz mills, they use them to grind oats, corn, &c., while tliey dissolve the quartzose gravel and pelyhles in their digester, containing the generating agents of sulphide of carbon, phosi)hate of lime, and other sponta¬ neous solvent agents, assisted by status electricity. Every ])article of the quartz is held in perfect solution, and deposited in a succession of thin laniinm upon the feathers. Birds do not urinate. The gold specks arc voided in and amongst the smoothunaflected by anv of tlie solvents aforesaid. The supernatant sulphur is separated (by the organs of the female bird, as seen in the yolh of the egg), and ensconsed within a non-conducting membrane, which retains the other generated elements of vitality* indis¬ pensable to generating the chicken, while the common * See my chapter upon the generating elements of life and vital power. 44 shell (outside the said ovara, or silicioiis non-conductor) is a weak carbo-albuininate and sulphide of lime, &c., that it may partially decompose to give easy egress to the chicken. The reasons become obvious why the she-bird’s feathers are of coarser laminae, and not variegated like the male. But the gold-separating lesson constitutes the im])ortant particular upon the main subject of this pami)hlet. My way of lecturing ui)on these (as well as all other) subjects, ditters from those pursued by the schools. My oidy apology for it is, because it’s my way. If I am asked the component x)arts of yonder tree, I should answer that it is nearly half and half of oxygen and car¬ bon ; that it represents, in itself, a country grocery store— for, aside from yokes, rakes, and axe-handles, it contains soap, starch, vinegar, sugar, writing-i)aper, writiug-ink, bath-brick, tire-wood and charcoal, as you x)lease to use it. If I am asked where it came from, I could demonstrate thus ; Take an old iron tank that will hold a cart-load of gravel and aluminous soil; bake and weigh the soil; i)ut the baked dirt into the tank'which you sliall have per¬ forated, that it have plenty of water x)ercolating into and out of the tank; set it exi)osed to sun and rain; X)lant an acorn, and when you shall have raised a tree weighing 200 or 500 pounds, take it out, shake ott* all the dirt from its roots ; bake and weigh the dirt again ;— you have lost no dirt. Question: Where did this tree come from ? Answer: The atmosi)here, the rocks, and the other elements described in my i)ublications; and why “the tall Taiinan grows loftiest on loftiest and least sheltered rocks,” where there is but the least perceivable supx)ort of earth for roots among the fissures of the rocks. AVhere did the sixty-five elements of matter come from ? Answer: Eead my four x)amx)hlets. You will find there newly discovered facts worth knowing. Again I (like Doctor Abernethy) invite all to read my books. BENJAMIN IIAKDINGE, 20 Waverhj Ft ace, near Broadway, N, Y. XfJ :> > » :> *> j> > •> □i ►> r) ►> rj ►:> £j