chemicals--which dissolved
the gold. This hot water, with gold in solution, seeped into the
cracks and crevices made by the rock as it cooled, thus forming other
types of veins."

"Hold on a minute, there!" protested Jim. "Water won't dissolve gold."

"It will and does," was the retort, "especially when certain chemicals
are in the water. As a matter of fact, even to-day, the geysers at
Steamboat Springs, California, and at several places in New Zealand,
deposit gold and silicon in their basins. But let me go on.

"After the gold was placed in veins in these primary rocks, there came
a period of erosion, and the mountains were worn away. The gold being
harder than rock, it remained and made alluvial deposits of a very
early age. Some, of these old 'placers' are several miles below the
surface, now, others have come again to the surface by all the
superposed rock having been washed away, anew. Some of the gold was
dissolved, as before, and got into the crevices of the newly deposited
rocks made by erosion, known as sedimentary rocks. So, you see, Jim,
even millions of years ago, there was gold in the crystallized
eruptive rock, gold in veins of igneous rock, gold in alluvial
deposits, and, again, gold in veins in the sedimentary rocks.

"Then came another period of elevation, with a second raising up of
mountain ranges, and with a renewal of violent volcanic action. The
crust was getting more and more unequal, the way in which the metals
were distributed became more and more scattered. Mountains of the
Secondary Age were often made of Primary sedimentary rocks, or of
Primary igneous rocks, so much changed that geologists call them
metamorphic rocks. And, Jim, every time that the rock was changed, the
gold changed either its place or its compound character, or both. Then
came another period of erosion, lasting millions of years, the gold
was washed away to form new placers, or made its way into veins in the
Secondary sedimentary rocks.

"Then came the great upheaval of the Third or Tertiary Age, in which
new mountains rose, new volcanic vents were opened, and, once more,
much of the gold was acted upon by chemicals, mainly sulphur and
tellurium. In many places silver showed a strong affinity with gold,
forming deposits where the ores were commingled. Once more the
hundreds of centuries of erosion came, to be followed by the upheaving
of the newer mountains of the Fourth or Quaternary Age. So, you see,
Jim, as I tol