Formation'of New Quartz.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 251, 1 September 1874, Page 7

Formation'of New Quartz.

i Our attention has been drawn by the Mining Insjrttftbrtb -tttringtolarformation of quartz discovered in the Bright Smile mine. It is what he calls new quartz, and such it undoubtedly appears to be, but the growth of •quar-tz. reefs is, no doubt, a new phase of geo-logY'-tb many of our readers; Captain Gold-smithj-however, assures us that, in some of, the older mines in Sweden, he has observed a new formation of reef in worked-out ground —that is, observed that the reef renewed ,itself, -and--this, too, in several instances. This mines which had been worked for hundreds of years. Mr Hicks, manager of the City of London, observed a similar phenomenon- in athr mine- in Cornwall) where a lode formed itself as hard and solid as the first one in a drive which had been opened for only ten years. In the latter instance, the lode, which at first had been poor in tin, became rich in iron ore, so that some important chemical changes must have occurred to produce the effect described. However, the new quartz in the Bright Smile seems to fully corroborate the theory of Captain Goldsmith, if that can be called a.theory whiph is made a matter of fact by actual observation. This singular feature rs noticeable at the west side slide, where quartz in all its gradations and f qrmations can be seen, from the white milky silica, which can be pressed into a putty pulp between the fingers, to the well-formed blue quartz." "Perhaps a-more thorough investigation of the formation ofrquartz reefs, or rather of their growth, might help geologists and mineralogists in accounting for the existence of gold and other minerals in those lodes, and might perhaps assist in leading to a solution of the vexed question of'how gold is deposited at all.— -Thames Advertiser. r