groped their way to warn the other miners, and then all, extinguishing their lamps as they went, safely escaped to the bottom of the shaft, and were drawn up. A few months after a second discharge from another part of the same colliery took place. A bore-hole having been made, a violent noise like the blowing off of steam was heard, and a heavy discharge of gas filled the air courses for a distance of 641 yards and over an area of 86,306 cubic feet. At 400 yards from the point of efflux a mining officer met the foul air, felt it blowing against him, saw the safety-lamp in his hand enlarge its flame, and drew down the wick. Still the gas continued to burn in his lamp for ten minutes, making the wires red hot, and then the light went out-a hint not lost on the owner, who quickly followed its example. At a distance of 641 yards from the efflux of the gas he met four men and boys whose lamps were rapidly reddening. At once they had the self-possession to immerse them in water, and thus escaped all danger of explosion. The disastrous effects of the fire-damp are not confined to the loss of human life; they are also extremely injurious to the workings, tearing up galleries, shattering machinery, or even setting fire to the mine-an accident which may also be caused by spontaneous combustion* or by the negligence of the workmen. These fires are often subdued by isolating the burning coal seam, by means of dams or clay walls, or by filling the mine with water; but not seldom they last for years, and assume dimensions which mock all human efforts to extinguish them. At Brûlé, near St. Etienne, a coal mine has been on fire for ages. The soil on the surface is barren and calcined, and the dense sulphurous fumes, escaping from innumerable crevices, give the country a complete volcanic aspect. In the carboniferous basins of Staffordshire and of Saarbrück and Silesia there are likewise coal mines which have been on fire for a long period. At Zwickau in Saxony the first accounts of one of these subterranean conflagrations date as far back as the fifteenth century, and the fire still * Experience has proved that when sulphuret of iron undergoes a chemical change into vitriol it disengages a sufficient quantity of heat to set fire to the coal with which it is often found mixed. burns on. The hot vapours which rise from the surface have since 1837 been put to an ingenious use. Conducted through pipes into conservatories, they ripen the choicest fruits of the south, and produce a tropical climate under a northern sky. In a Staffordshire colliery which had been on fire for many years, and which was called by the inhabitants Burning Hill, it was noticed that the snow melted on reaching the ground, and that the grass in the meadows was always green. Some speculators conceived the idea of establishing a school of horticulture on the spot, and imported colonial plants at a heavy expense. These flourished for a time, but one day the subterranean fire went out, and as the heat it had imparted to the soil gradually diminished and departed, the exotic vegetation likewise drooped and died. CHAPTER XXIV. GOLD. The Golden Fleece - Golden Statues in ancient Temples-A Free-thinking Soldier-Treasures of ancient Monarchs - First Gold Coins-Ophir - Spanish Gold Mines-Bohemian Gold Mines - Discovery of America-Siberian Gold Mines-California-Marshall - Rush to the Placers-Discovery of Gold in Australia―The Chinaman's Hole-New Eldorados-Alluvial Gold Deposits in California and Australia-Washing-Quartz-crushing. GOLD OLD is probably the metal which has been longest known to man. For as it is found only in the metallic state, its weight and brilliancy most naturally have attracted attention or awakened greed at a very early age. Thus we read in the Bible that one of the rivers flowing from Paradise'compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good.' Gold is also mentioned among the riches of Abraham, and when the patriarch's servant met Rebekah at the fountain of Nahor, he presented the damsel with a 'golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold,' undoubtedly the first trinkets on record. The mythical history of Greece has likewise been thought to point to a very ancient knowledge of gold, and the story of the search for the Golden Fleece' has by some been explained as an expedition undertaken in quest of the metal; for the use of sheepskins or woollen coverings, to collect and retain the minutest particles of gold during the operation of washing, is common in many auriferous countries. From the great value which the ancient nations attached to its possession, gold was largely used for the decoration of their temples, and many of their idols were made of gold. Such, among others, was the image of Belus, seated on a golden throne in the great temple of Babylon; that of Apollo at Delphi, and the magnificent statue of the Olympian Zeus, composed, by the hand of Phidias, of ivory and gold, and still less remarkable for its costly materials than for the consummate beauty of its workmanship. Pliny relates that a massive golden statue of the goddess Anaitis was taken by Marc Antony in his war against the Parthians. The Emperor Augustus, dining one day at Bononia with an old veteran who had taken part in the campaign, asked him whether it was true that the sacrilegious soldier who had first laid hands on the goddess had been suddenly deprived of the use of his eyes and limbs, and had thus miserably perished. 'I myself am the man,' answered the smiling host; 'you are dining from off her thigh, and to her am I indebted for all the plate in my possession.' The wealth of monarchs was estimated less by the extent of their domains than by the gold which they possessed, and as each successive conqueror added to the spoils of vanquished nations, the treasures accumulated by single despots grew to an almost fabulous amount. Every schoolboy knows that the vast treasures of Croesus fell into the hands of Cyrus, who, according to the rather questionable authority of Pliny, acquired in Asia Minor no less than 24,000 pounds weight of gold, without reckoning the vases and the wrought metal. To this treasure his son Cambyses added the gold of Egypt, and Darius Hystaspis the tribute of the frontier nations of India. Thus the gold of almost the whole known world was accumulated in one single hoard, which, after the taking of Persepolis, fell into the hands of Alexander the Great. Plutarch relates that 10,000 teams of mules and 500 camels were needed for the transport of this wealth to Susa, where Alexander was cheated out of a great part of it by his treasurer. Rome, the subsequent mistress of the world, naturally absorbed the greater part of the riches of Tyre and Carthage, of Asia and Egypt. Sixty-six years after the third Punic war the public treasury contained 1,620,831 pounds weight of gold, and still greater wealth was accumulated under the Caesars. As the empire declined, the hoards amassed in the times of its increasing power were once more dispersed. A considerable part, however, found its way to Constantinople, and after many a loss, caused by the repeated EARLIEST USE OF GOLD. 287 disasters of a thousand years, the remnant fell at length into the hands of the victorious Turks. * The time when gold was first coined is unknown. The oldest specimen in the Imperial Cabinet at Vienna is from Cyzicus, a town of Mysia, and bears the date of the seventh century before Christ; the next coin in point of antiquity is Persian, and was probably struck under the reign of Cyrus. According to Pliny, gold was first coined by the Romans in the year 547 after the foundation of the city. During the empire of the Chalifes Abuschafar-al-Monsur established a mint at Bagdad, in which silver coins (dirhems) and gold coins (dinars) were struck. The Visigoths in Spain likewise had golden coins; but in the other western mediæval States they first appear, after a long interval, under Lewis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, in Venice, in 1290; and in Bohemia, under John of Luxembourg. The gold of the Carolingian monarch probably proceeded from the spoils of the old west Roman Empire; that of the Venetians (zecchins or ducats) was, no doubt, obtained, like that of the Phoenicians of old, by trading with the gold countries of Africa and of the distant East. The Florentines, the rivals of Venice, likewise obtained wealth by trade, and struck gold coins, which, from their being stamped with a flower, the arms of Florence, were called fiorini, or florins. The coins of the kings of Bohemia were made from indigenous gold. It is hardly necessary to remark that since those times the use of gold coins has been constantly increasing with the progress of trade and civilisation; but even now, in many African and Asiatic countries which possess large quantities of gold, no coins are struck, but the metal is weighed, and thus serves as a medium of exchange, in the same manner as in the times of Abraham or Jacob. The countries from which the ancients obtained their chief supply of gold were the Indian Highlands, Colchis, and Africa. The seat of Ophir, which furnished this precious metal to the Phoenician and Jewish traders, is unknown. While some authorities place it on the east coast of Africa, others fix its situation somewhere on the west coast of the * These names were borrowed from the Greek Drachma and the Latin Denarius. |