How Nature Makes Silver

The procesa by which nature foraoi her si lv er mines is very interesting. ïfc must be remembered that the earth'i ernst ia full of water, which percolates everywhere through the rocks, making solntions of elementa obtained from them. These solutions take up small partióles of precious metal which they find here and ijhere. Sometimes the solutions in question are hot, the water having got so far down as to be set boiling by the internal heat of the globe. Then they rush npward, picking up the bits of metal as they go. Naturally heat assists the performance of this operation. Now and then the streams thus formed, perpetually flowing hither and thith er below the ground, pass through craoks or cavities in the rooks, where they deposit their lodes of silver. This is kept np for a great length of time - perhaps thousands of years - until the pocket is filled np. Crannies permeating the stony mas in every direction may become fillee with the preoious metal, or occasionally a chamber may be stored full of it as i: 1,000,000 hands were fetching the treas nres from all sides and hiding away a mine for eome lucky prospector to dis