{ Tales From the Hills
. THE ASSOCIATION OF
QUART WITH ORES
<By Ernaat^N; Patty, Dean of Alaska
Agricultural College and School
of Mines.)
Jack and Larry were plodding their
* weary way up the trail to their cabin
after putting in a hard shift in the
tunnel. Jack dropped down on a big
. rock with the remark: “Let’s take
five, Larry. I’ve been trying to think,
and I cannot walk and think a tthe
same time—sort of a single-track
track mind, I guess you would call it.”
Larry dropped down nearby, picked
up a piece of quartz floot lying on
. the trail and mechanically began
bi*akih«: it between twr>. rocks, then
examining the fresh surface for “col
ors.” “Don’t try to think too hard on
an empty stomach. Jack. Doctor says
it's had for the digestion. Well., go
ahead and get it off your chest, V
!
I
“W hat I don t understand, Larry„ is
■why ouartz is so often associated with
valuable ore. It seems to be. pretty
well understood by everybody that
quartz and ore are- almost universally
associated, but I have never heard
anyone attempt to explain why.. Take
one of the Eastern sportsmen who
come out here hunting in the sum
mers. Now, if one of those fellows
was crawling along on a ridge to get
a pot shot at a bunch of sheep and he
should suddenly crawl across a quartz
ledge he would immediately forget all
about getting a shot at the sheep and
begin -looking f<jr gold.”
“Some, but not all of them, Jack.
I have seen some of these hunters
who would rather get - themselves a
nice sheep than be president of the
First .National Bank back in their
home town."
“You’re dodging my, question,
Larry; "Either you’re Hungry or for
once I have found a subject, winch
that..Irish mind of yours is afraid to
wrangle., with.”
“FH-admit, that I am good and hun
ggy.,\M»l. don’t figure for a minute
thatiViyu have me stuck,” Larry re
tort.'d. .“When I took the short course
last winter at the College we talked
about that subject quinte a bit. Put
ting the explanation into my .' own
words it is something like this: The
original:'home. of, the ore miner ala.-is
in these'igneous intrusions,, such, as
granite and monzonite. These intru
sions were once deeper in the earth
and were in a melted" condition, . The
geologists call these molten areas by
the term magmas. These magmas
contain the chemical elements which
rocks are composed of and.they;alsc
contain minor amounts.of »such;.metab
as copper, lead, silver, goldJ.etc. Out
| mnKnia may be particularly rich in
gold, another, in ropper and some of
| them apparently- have only very small
i quantiea of the valuable.metals. Now
! one of thdse msKOUU may be forced
i into some area: of" overlying older
rocks. If the molten material breaks
I through to the surface the. lava will
1 be quickly chilled and freeze. as fine
! grained volcanic rocks such as rhyo
lite, and basalt. The quick freezing
does not give any metals which may
be present time to collect together
and they will occur scattered as small
traces through the entire mass. Now,
on the other hand, if this intrusion
gets within a mile or so of the sur
face and most of it does not break
through the overlying roof rocks, it
will take this area of molten rocks
years to cool down and freeze. It
will naturally start freezing from the
outer edge and the time will be suffi
cient for the heavier metals to sink
deeper and collect more or less to
gether. As the magma chills, it is a
known scientific fact that the darker
rock-forming materials, such as mica
and hornblende, are the» first to crys
tallize. The next to form are the
feldspar crystals; and then the other
margin is like a sponge, the fibers
being made up of micha, hornblende,
feldspar, etc., the juice in the sponge
being the still liquid quartz. L this
sponge is compressed; some of the
quartz juice will be squeezed upward
into openings in the roof rocks. The
metals are still liquidiow gaseous at
this stage, and if they haven’t , all set
tled downwards they will go with the
quartz. That i» one of . the reasons
why quartz is so often associated
with valuable ores. In < other words,
the excess quartz juice and any metals
which may be tangled through it are
simply ejected upward into the roof
rocks when the molten intrusion crys
tallized.”
“But. Larry, you said much of the
metals settled down deeper into the
intrusion as the outer margin cooled.
What about these metals? Are they
j completely lost ? If ■ they are, there
l must .be some mighty rich chambers
of ore in the heart of these- intru
sions.”
i “Jack, the best of the experts do
not agree about all that, and they
i probably never will, because no man
: has ever seen more than seven or
- eight thousand feet into the earth,
i There is one thing sure, however, and
• that is that much of these metals
r which settle out are later caught, and
s in association with lesser amounts oi
i quartz,, steam and other gases are
> squeezed out of the magma. Thej
5 use fault planes or any conduits thej
3 can find to ascend into the overlying
A
| Washington’s
Birthday
WILL BE APPROPRIATELY
CELEBRATED AT
\
f Ophir, Alaska
February 22
A PLEASANT TIME ASSUREDv
)
cooled rocks. Quite often the orig
inal quartz vein may be ruptured sev
eral times by fault fissures and con
centrated metallic solutions used to
cement these ruptures. Take our
vein, for example: You have noticed
that right in the center of the vein
there is a dark streak about half an
inch wide- of mixed quartz and arseno
pyrite and that much of our values'
are concentrated right there in that
narrow dark ribbon. The history of
our vein has been something like this:
First, a quartz vein carrying a few
dollars in gold was injected; then, at
a littlel ater date, this vein was rup
tured and a..rich concentration of
quartz, arsenopyrite was drawn off1
below and used to heal this rupture.
If it hadn’t been for that second.,
period, of mineralization we wouldn’t ;
be working here today. If . that pay-,
streak should ever quit our vein then :
the remainder of the vein would be t
too low grade to fool with.”
“Well, Larry, that was a rather
long-winded explanation, and it raised
many qusetions that I would like to
ask you about, but I am getting
chilled sitting here on this rock, so
let’s go to the cabin and get a bite
to eat.”
I
24.592,370 MOTOR VEHICLES
NOW IN UNITED STATES
NEW YORK.—There are 24,592,370)
registered motor vehicles in the
United States, an increase of 1,463,055 j
■ over a year ago, the annual tabula
tion made by Motor Magazine from
the registry records of the various
States shows.
Passenger cars showed an increase of
6.2 per cent during the year, number
ing 21,468,596. The number of motor
trucks is 3,123,774, a gain of 7.2 per
cent.
New York State led in the number j
of vehicles in use, with 2,090,815, fol
lowed by California, 1,806,224; Ohio.j
1,662,000; Pennsylvania, 1,649,400;
Illinois, 1,502,796; Michigan, 1,248,-!
U8U; Texas, 1,111,407.
The increase of 1,463,055 is all
classes of vehicles during 1928 com
pares with an increase of 1,125,922
recorded during 1927.
“Domestic sales of passenger cars
last year approximated 3,075,000,”
the magazine said, “and the registra
tion increase was only 1,254,000, so it
is obvious that more than 1,800,000
• cars were scrapped or take nout of
service in some other way. Replace
i ments, therefore,, now are accounting
■ for about 60 per cent of the total
. sales.”
t
1
Long and Short of, If..
I The late Mrs. Mary Emery of Cin
; cinnati, whose $5,000,000 art gallery j
; was bequeathed to the Cincinnati Art
r Museum, was a. generous patron of
, painters, poets,, sculptors and musi
r [ cians.
: j Once, at a Cincinnati tea, a clergy
II man praised Mrs. Emery for the pen
sion she had bestowed on an aged
novelist.
“Oh, well,” she said in answer “art
is long, hut artists aw always short.”
TABLE OK DISTANCES BE
TWEKN NENANA AND FLATj
Miles'
Nenana .. 00
( Tavern Roadhouse.. 17^*
;i Knight's Roadhouse .... 11 Vi.
Ji Nineteen-Mile-Roadhouse . 58^ ..
1 Diamond Roadhouse . 70
■ Roosevelt ._.80
Lake Minchumina-- - 115
j Trappers’ Cabin . 132
1 Lone Star Roadhouse .. 150
" Telida Roadhouse .t6PVs'
c1 Slow Fork Roadhouse.187
‘ East Fork Roadhouse .) 200 t
s Berry's Landing Roadhouse . 227Vfej
* Big River Roadhouse-.241 j
rf McGrath ..... 263 [
,i Takotna ........ 280
Bin Goss"' Roadhouse . 291
' Ophir. _.... 300
aj McGafferty ...,. 306
Brown Greek shelter cabin .318
Frit* shelter cabin . 333
s First Chance shelter cabin . 346
il Schermeyer &. Hi. ..... 360
Iditarod: .—. 376
I Flat . 384
sj Bonanzza sheler cabin, 12 miles
| from Flat.
Crooked Creek shelter cabin, 19
lv miles from Bonanza.
t
Babeesch Moosehide Mitts and Boots
Furs Bought and Sold Clothing
All Kinds of Nice Fresh Groceries and Fruits
Canned Goods of All Kinds Beds and Bedding
A. R. Hdridge - McGrath
TAKCTNA ROADHOUSE
Best of Meals and Rooms
Where Everything Is Homelike and
Where You Are Cordially Welcomed
GOOD DOG HOUSES BATHS
Ivar Chilstrom - Prop.
I i
Rough and Dressed Lum- |
ber of All Kinds j
,1 . {
j INHOKO LUMBER CO. j
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