Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/81

Rh of gold ever met with were discovered, as that of Cabarrus co., N. C., of 28 lbs. avoirdupois, or 37 lbs. troy, found in 1810; the mass weighing 96 lbs. troy in Zlatoust, a district of the southern Ural, in 1842, and now in the imperial school of mines at St. Petersburg; a mass from Victoria in Australia, which was exhibited in London, and weighed 146 lbs. 3 dwts. troy, of which 6 oz. only were estimated as matrix; and the still larger mass found at Ballarat in that region, and weighing 2,217 oz. 16 dwts., or about 185 lbs. troy. According to Phillips, the largest piece of gold ever found was probably the great Australian nugget, known as the “Sarah Sands,” which weighed 233 lbs. 4 oz. troy. Though in a metallic state, gold is never obtained pure; silver is always alloyed with it, but in no definite proportions. The purest specimen is probably one from the Ural, near Yekaterinburg, analyzed by Rose, which gave, in 100 parts, gold 98.96, silver 0.16, copper 0.35; its specific gravity was 19.099. The product of California is much of it very near the richness of gold of the American and French gold coins, which is 900 parts in 1,000. Its average, however, is stated to be to, and that of Australia to. A specimen of California gold, containing gold 90.70, silver 8.80, and iron 0.38, was of specific gravity only 14.6, and by fusing this was increased to 17.48. Gold from the Chaudière, Canada, of specific gravity 17.60, analyzed by T. Sterry Hunt, gave gold 87.77, silver 12.23; another specimen in fine scales, of specific gravity 16.57, produced gold 89.24, silver 10.76. Copper, palladium, and rhodium are also met with as alloys of gold. In Transylvania veins are worked producing an alloy of tellurium, gold, silver, and antimony; the tellurium commonly constitutes from 55 to 60 per cent., and the gold from 25 to 30 per cent. The same compound has been recognized at Gold Hill, N. C. Gold occurs in a few other combinations also with tellurium.—In the oldest records of the human race mention is made of gold, and like silver it was enumerated as an element of riches. Throughout the Old Testament there are frequent allusions to gold and to fine gold. It was beaten into thin plates, cut into wires, and even woven with threads of linen for the sacerdotal robe of Aaron. It was fashioned into breastplates with chains at the ends of wreathen work of pure gold; and it was used as the setting of precious stones. By other nations it was made into gods and idols, some of gigantic size. Aaron prepared a golden calf for the children of Israel, which Moses burned with fire and reduced to powder; an operation that might have been effected by first melting and beating it out into plates. In building the temple of Jerusalem the quantities of gold lavishly employed by Solomon for its furniture and decorations implied that it was largely collected, and that the ancients had access to mines of great extent and richness. Atahuallpa, the

captured inca of Peru, agreed to bring together for his ransom, in the space of two months, articles of gold which should fill a room 22 ft. long and 17 broad to the height of 9 ft. When this was done and the gold melted, it was found to amount to 1,326,539 pesos de oro. The commercial value of the peso, according to Prescott, was equivalent to $11 67, making the sum total $15,480,710. The source whence the Phœnicians and Israelites derived their immense supplies of gold was the land of Ophir, a region still of uncertain locality. Once in three years the fleet of Solomon completed a voyage to it and back. Its other products besides gold brought back to Palestine (1 Kings x. 11 and 22), as ivory, spices, precious stones, ebony, peacocks, apes, and the almug or sandal wood, indicate that it was in the tropics. It is generally presumed to have been either the East Indies or that part of the S. E. coast of Africa called Sofala by the Arabs. The auriferous character of the desert steppes of Gobi was known in the time of Herodotus to the inhabitants about the sources of the Indus; and to this day are to be seen along the southern Ural the works of ancient mining operations, supposed to be those of the nomadic Scythians. Ethiopia and Nubia also were largely productive of gold; and the ancient mines discovered by Belzoni in the Zabarah mountains are supposed to have furnished to the Pharaohs of Egypt their abundant supplies. Thus many auriferous regions appear to have been known at different times, as productive as those of the present period. While the gold of the deposits continued abundant they were vigorously wrought, and each district furnished in its turn the principal share of the production of the world. In the time of the Romans the precious metals were not so abundant, though rich deposits were worked along the foot of the Pyrenees, and in some of the provinces bordering the Alps. Strabo (B. iv. ch. 6, sec. 12) refers to the statement of Polybius that in his time the gold mines near Apulia were so productive that the value of gold was reduced one third in Rome. Spain, too, had its deposits worked in ancient times along the Tagus; and the Athenians gathered their supplies of the metals from Thessaly and the island of Thasos. In the middle ages the art of working gold appears to have been little practised. The richness of the known mines was comparatively exhausted, and previous to the opening of the new fields following the discovery of America, the attention of metallurgists was directed to vain attempts to transmute the baser into the precious metals. It was estimated that at the time of the discovery of America the gold and silver in the old world, exclusive of the more or less unknown regions of the East, was reduced to about £34,000,000, and that the supply no more than met the loss by wear. The enormous importation of gold and silver from the new world soon made up the deficiencies of the old mining regions, and, reducing the value