d you before, gold can be found in almost every rock and
of every geological period."

"I don't see that it helps much, then!" declared the old prospector.
"You can go lookin' where you durn please."

"There's nothing to stop you," agreed Owens cheerfully, "but that's a
hit-and-miss method. And I can show you just how even this little bit
of geology comes in to help the miner.

"Get this clearly in your head, Jim! Three-quarters of the present
gold production of the world comes from gold that is mixed with
pyrites--which is a sulphide of iron, or from tellurides--in which a
tellurium-hydrogen compound has been the chemical agent. A prospector,
therefore, who uncovers a new field where the gold is in the pyritous
or the telluride form has ten times more chance of attracting capital
than one who finds lumps of native gold lying around loose.

"It is when a prospector strikes a section where all the gold-bearing
rock has been eroded that he is apt to find the 'pockets' so dear to
his heart. The amazing riches of the Klondyke lay in the fact that
prospectors found, first, the alluvial deposits from the present age
in the sands of the running creeks, and, on ledges high above the
creeks and running into the rocks on either side, the alluvial
deposits, even thicker and richer, of a bygone time."

"You've got it right," declared Jim, emphatically. "I know 'cos I was
there!"

"Was it on the Yukon, then, that you made your famous strike?"

The prospector winced. Evidently, he intended to reach that point in
his own way.

"I'll tell you about that, after a bit," he answered evasively. "But
you ain't said why placer claims peter out."

"Can't you see? A placer claim doesn't show where the big store of
gold is, but where it isn't! It shows that the gold has gone. A placer
is just a spot where a little heavy gold, that hasn't been acted on
by chemicals, happens to have been deposited during the erosion of a
mountain which was composed of gold-bearing rock. The rock has been
washed into sand and gravel and a great deal of it taken out to sea.
There's plenty of gold in the sea, as I told you before.

"But the amount of sand or gravel to be panned along a creek or river
is limited. When that's washed over, there's no more to find. A
prospector gets down to bed-rock and he's through. Then he's either
got to pack up and hunt some new spot where the same erosion has
happened, or, if he's clever enough, he's got to find the roc