. The Bookshelf for boys and girls Historic Tales and Golden Deeds part 4. om of that stupendous basin,which has received for all time the washings ofall the world, there is an incalculable wealth of gold in dust; but the strange ocean mine is notail so deep down as that. The sea-water itselfcarries gold in solution —a fraction of a grain ofgold to every ton of water, as a famous chemisthas shown. Among the historical big nuggets found invarious parts of the world, there have been somewonderful yellow lumps. In Cabarrus County,North Carolina, one was found in 1810 whichweighed thirty-seven pou
. The Bookshelf for boys and girls Historic Tales and Golden Deeds part 4. om of that stupendous basin,which has received for all time the washings ofall the world, there is an incalculable wealth of gold in dust; but the strange ocean mine is notail so deep down as that. The sea-water itselfcarries gold in solution —a fraction of a grain ofgold to every ton of water, as a famous chemisthas shown. Among the historical big nuggets found invarious parts of the world, there have been somewonderful yellow lumps. In Cabarrus County,North Carolina, one was found in 1810 whichweighed thirty-seven pounds troy. In 1842 thegold-fields of Zlatoust, in the Ural, gave a nuggetof ninety-six pounds troy. The Victoria (Aus-tralia) nugget weighed 146 pounds and threepennyweights, of which only six ounces wereforeign rock; and the Ballarat (Australia) nug-get was thirty-nine pounds heavier yet. Thelargest nugget ever found was also dug in Aus-tralia—the Sarah Sands, named for a far-offloved one. It reached the astonishing weight of233 pounds and four ounces troy! I wonder. HVURAULIC MINING —BREAKING UP ROCK BV TWO GREAT STREAMS OF WAIKK. what Miner Sands felt when he struck his pickupon that fortune in one lump! Since their fields were opened, California andAustralia alone have produced more than half asmuch gold as the whole world had mined beforeColumbus. The total annual production of goldin the world is over four hundred millions ofdollars. Yet the world is not richer in gold by all thatvast amount every year. It is losing, too—an 414 CURIOUS STORIES FROM HISTORY amount very trifling compared with the whole,and yet very large in fact. You hear peoplewishing that they owned this rich mine or thatvast fortune; but if one could have just theannual loss on the billions of dollars worth ofgold now in the worlds hands, there would beno need to envy Croesus. Every year an im-palpable golden dust—so infinitely fine as toseem rather a vapor than a dust—is worn fromall gold in
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectliterat, bookyear1912
