LXIII.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF MANKIND.
THE STONE AGE.—PICTURE OF ADAM AND EVE.—HOW EVE CUT THE APPLE.—MINERS OF ANCIENT TIMES.—DISCOVERY OF STONE IMPLEMENTS.—THE INVENTION OF FIRE.—HOW GOLD WAS FOUND.—COPPER AND BRONZE.—THE BRONZE AGE.—IRON AND ITS USES.—MINERAL PRODUCTIONS OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES.—QUICKSILVER IN SPAIN AND CALIFORNIA.—THE WEALTH OF NEVADA.—ROMANTIC STORY OF THE COMSTOCK LODE.—MINERAL FUTURE OF AMERICA.
The most extensively worked mineral substance at the present day is coal, yet it is the most recent of mineral discoveries. Iron, copper, tin, and nearly all the metals were dug from the earth, and used long before the value of mineral coal was known.
In the earliest days of mankind, tools for various uses were made of wood, bones, or stone. The first tools were undoubtedly of wood, but the material was so perishable in its nature that no specimens from those early days have come down to us. Stone, being a harder substance than wood, and much more durable in its character, rapidly took its place. The period when the human race was in its infancy has been properly classified as the “Age of Stone,” for the reason that man at that time was ignorant of the use of metal. Many implements from the stone age have come down to us, and are found in various parts of the world. In the copper mines on the shores of Lake Superior, many tools have been found which were used by a race long extinct, and of which we have no history.
In opening one of these mines, several years ago, more than a hundred stone axes and wedges were discovered near a large mass of native copper, which had been moved a short distance, and supported upon sticks of timber.
No implements other than those of stone were found, and all of these had been broken in an unsuccessful attempt to cut the mass of copper in two. In various parts of America, Europe, and Asia, stone implements from the early days of the human race are found, and at the present time there are many savage tribes belonging practically to the stone age.
In some islands of the Pacific the people have not yet emerged from what is to us a very remote period. Barbarism under some circumstances may almost be considered perpetual.
The history of the early days of mankind upon the earth is very largely a matter of conjecture: much of it comes from tradition, and much of it from calculation. The great antiquity of the human race is a recognized fact, and geologists have shown that the period of early barbarism may have extended over tens of thousands of years. Civilization, properly speaking, began only with the discovery of fire and metals.
DISCOVERY OF FIRE.
Some of the Greek mythologists say that Prometheus stole fire from heaven. The more prosaic fact is, that fire was first discovered by means of lightning, which set fire to the forests, and thus revealed to mankind a new element in nature. It is probable that our first parents in the garden of Eden had no knowledge whatever of this element, or of the metals, or even of implements of wood or stone. Consequently the enthusiastic artist of the middle age, who drew a picture of Adam and Eve standing in front of a fire to warm themselves, and represented Eve holding a knife in her hand, with which she was cutting slices from the fatal apple to give to the waiting Adam, was guilty of anachronism.
There are other conjectures of the discovery of fire, but they are purely conjectures. Fire may have been known from the earliest ages, through volcanic eruptions and streams of lava.
People who lived far away from volcanos may have discovered it from the spontaneous combustion of wood after hot and dry summers, or of masses of weeds and rubbish thrown together, and forming peculiar chemical combinations. It is possible that other people may have discovered fire by meansof flint, or they may have obtained it by rubbing two pieces of dried wood against each other, according to the practice of the present day among many savage people.
At any rate, it is probable that the discovery of fire led to that of metals. Fires built against certain rocks may have calcined them, and caused the metals which they contained to be fused together. By some it is thought that the first metal discovered was gold, which existed in the sands of the streams, and would naturally attract attention by its shining appearance.
Even if gold were the earliest discovery, it exercised no great influence on the civilization of the human race; but it was otherwise with the discovery of the commoner metals. From the time these were known, the human race made rapid progress, and written history began with them.
The discovery of copper and tin preceded that of bronze, which is an alloy of these two metals. Copper may have been discovered in its natural state, or in combination with other substances, which could easily be removed by the action of fire. The metal was soft and easily fashioned, but there are many purposes which it could not be made to answer. The localities where this metal was first discovered are not positively known. Some contend that it came from India, while others give credit to that part of England known at the present time as Cornwall.
THE AGE OF BRONZE.
The alloy of copper and tin for the formation of bronze grew into very rapid use, and it was made of various degrees of hardness, according to the purpose for which it was intended. Wedges, knives, axes, saws, fish-hooks, ploughshares, picks, and a thousand other implements for the uses of peace or of war, were made of bronze. It could be melted and cast in moulds, or it could be hammered and fashioned at the will of the smith. With bronze the art of moulding began. Bronze was used for money. It was cast into utensils for kitchens, and parlors, and other apartments of dwellings. It was fashioned into statuary, and sometimes into statuary of a very vulgar character. Weapons were made of it, such as theheads of arrows, lances, and javelins, swords, shields, and helmets; while it was useful in peace, it was likewise useful in war. A French writer has said, “The art of killing one another will advance at the same time as all the other arts.”
Lead, silver, and quicksilver were discovered about the same time as copper. A long period may have elapsed after the discovery of bronze before that of iron. Doubtless this was in a great measure because bronze supplied all the requirements of the arts of peace as well as of war, and would naturally precede iron, because it was more readily and easily worked. The reduction of iron ore has always been a delicate process, and is attended with more or less difficulty. A strong current of air was required to give sufficient heat to melt the iron. It is quite likely that the first blast furnace was made from the hollow trunk of a tree containing a piston, moving up and down like that of an ordinary pump. This method is still in use among the Malays and the African negroes. While the Polynesians are still in the stone period, the Malays and negroes are just entering the first cycle of the iron period.
Some of the philosophers suggest that this is by the desire of the Ruler of the universe, in order to guide the civilized man of to-day in the study of the early history of his race.
THE AGE OF IRON.
For a long time iron was only used in its malleable form. The discovery of cast iron was not a prime necessity, since its place was well supplied by bronze. Historians tells us that cast iron was discovered about the time of the invention of gunpowder. It was used for making shot, and afterwards for making the guns by which the shot were projected. The English were the first to adopt them, and tried them against the French in the battle of Crécy, about the middle of the fourteenth century.
Step by step furnaces were constructed, and almost every decade witnessed some kind of improvements in their management. Then came the invention by which steel could be manufactured on a large scale. The rapid increase in the use of iron dates, as before stated, from the general use of mineral coal.
Pages could be covered with details of the uses of iron and steel. The production and consumption of these metals amount to millions of tons annually, yet the demand never exceeds the supply. They are fast replacing timber and stone for many uses, and they are substituted for bronze in ornamental castings. No tools or weapons can be made without them. They constitute parts of nearly all machinery; and turn where we will,—wherever civilized men are to be found,—we shall see iron and steel occupying prominent places.
COUNTRIES THAT PRODUCE IRON.
Deposits of metals are found in all parts of the globe. Great Britain is rich in lead, and tin, and iron, and in some localities gold has been discovered. She furnishes other countries with some of her metals, and those which she does not find in sufficient quantities for her own wants she brings from abroad. Many of the metallic ores of other countries are sent to England to be smelted and reduced. On the continent of Europe there are copper mines, silver mines, iron mines, and mines of nickel, zinc, and tin. Some of the deposits of metallic ores are very great. In one place in Swedish Lapland there is a hill rising out of the swampy ground, where there are veins of iron ore, some of them two hundred feet in thickness. Belgium, in proportion to her size, produces more iron than England. Along the valley of the Rhine and its tributaries there are rich deposits of the various metals, some of them of great extent. Russia is rich in mines; and as we go from European to Asiatic Russia, we find that the richness continues.
France has large supplies of iron, and on a small scale she possesses the other metals. In Spain there is great mineral wealth, and some of the mines of that country have been exploited for thousands of years. The most celebrated quicksilver mine in the world is that of Almaden, situated in Spain; and it has been continually worked for three thousand years. Until the discovery and working of the New Almaden quicksilver mine, in California, the famous mine of Spain controlled the quicksilver market of the globe. In Northern Italy there are many districts rich in metallic ores. Throughout Asia,from the Arctic to the Indian Ocean, there are mines of all the metals, some of them of great richness. Mining industry in that part of the world is still in its infancy, and great discoveries and great progress may be looked for within the next hundred years.
In Africa, as well as in Asia, there are rich mineral deposits, though comparatively little is known about them. The new world is not behind the old in its mineral wealth. Every known mineral substance is found here; and there are evidences that the mines were worked thousands of years before Columbus made his famous voyage across the Atlantic. Some of the largest metallic veins in the world are in America.
Mexico, Peru, and other Spanish settlements on this side of the globe are almost unparalleled in richness. California alone has furnished an immense amount of gold to the hard money circulation of the world, and is destined to furnish still more.
SILVER IN AMERICA.
Nevada and the territories lying around it have a wealth of silver unknown, and doubtless inexhaustible. The copper mines of Lake Superior have become famous throughout the world; and the iron mines of the great Mississippi valley and the Atlantic slope may yet supply the world with the most useful and most generally needed metals.
Probably the richest mines yet known are those situated on the famous Comstock lode, in Nevada.
From 1862 to 1865, including both these years, the mines on that lode yielded about forty-eight millions of dollars, and since that time the return has averaged more than twenty millions of dollars annually. The produce of silver from the Comstock vein is about one fourth of the entire amount furnished by all the silver mines in the world. It exceeds the aggregate produce of all European countries, and equals that of the entire western coast of South America.
A French engineer, who visited Nevada some years ago, wrote of it as follows:—
“Its extraordinary productiveness has made the Washoe region more famous for its mineral wealth than many places where silver ores have been found, and mined for centuries.It has attracted an enormous civilized population. It has built cities in the desert, and roads across high mountain ranges, accelerated the union by steam of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of America, created a new branch of mining industry in the Pacific states, and given successful employment to large amounts of capital.”
The original mine of the Comstock vein is known as the Gould and Curry. It originally belonged to two men whose names it bears. Gould sold out his share for a pair of blankets and a bottle of whiskey. Curry disposed of his interest for a horse and two thousand dollars. One of the mines on the same vein was bought one day for two thousand dollars, and six weeks afterwards was sold for nine hundred thousand. Some of the most remarkable mining speculations ever known in the history of the world have occurred in Nevada.
A long story could be told of the various countries of the world, and of the productions for which they are famous; but it is hardly necessary in this place, and very likely would become tedious. Scarcely any part of the globe can be mentioned where some mineral of value is not found, and the various substances seem to be distributed in such a way as to develop intimate relations among the various members of the human family, and to draw nations nearer and nearer to each other.
MINERAL EXCHANGES.
England exchanges her iron and coal for the produce of other nations. Spain sends her quicksilver. Chili sends her copper. Mexico and Peru send their silver, and receive in return the articles which they need, and other nations can spare. Other countries send their minerals to distant markets, and receive in return the products of the countries where those markets exist. America, with her mines, is comparatively in a state of infancy; but the day will come—and it is not far distant—when she will be the great supplying centre of a large portion of the globe.