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Show MINING FORTUNES AND MISFORTUNES. 583 ' sorbed by, and has changed the character of the ore, solid galena hav-ing been changed to carbonates ; and mines are occasionally found in which this process is not quite completed. And here we may appropriately indulge in a little popular science. The miner has his own name for each variety of ore known to him, while the chemist, or metallurgist, has his; but for the commoner varieties these names are the same, and are formed on a curiously con-venient system. If the term ends in yde, ide, or id, it means a com-bination of oxygen or some gas with the metal. Thus we have oxide of silver, etc., and chloride of silver, a chemical union of chlorine and silver, very rich and easily reduced, it being already in favorable com-bination with salt. If the termination is uret, it means a union of the actual substance with the silver, as sulphuret, a combination of sulphur and silver; sulphuret of zinc, zinc and sulphur, etc. If it is ate, it means the acid combined with the mineral, making an entirely new compound; and of all these, carbonates of lead and silver are most familiar to the miner, and generally most welcome, being so easily re-duced. Of the carbonates of the Ophir District, it is said that they " run through a smelter like molasses," and those of Leadville are re-ported even more tractable, where there is lead enough in the com-bination. Many mines there have an additional element of iron, which is said to add to the ease of treatment. Galena, in miners' language, simply means lead in the ore ; galeniferous, carrying lead, and argentiferous carrying silver. The bulk of ore from the large ore-bodies in Utah is simply argentiferous galena, and Gentile Utah is often spoken of poetically as Utah Argentifera. As aforesaid, the received opinion is that all carbonates were once galena, or some other solid ore; and not very long ago, as nature counts time. In the Emma Mine, Utah, while shoveling up carbon-ates as loose as sand, one often comes upon a solid chunk of galena; but in the Ophir District, the carbonates are bright and free from other ores. A pile of ore just from some of the mines there looks very like a mixture of sand and lime the chemical union is com-plete. Galena is among the heaviest ores, and can nearly always be reduced by ordinary smelting, the lead and silver in combination sink-ing to the bottom, while the melted gangue, being lighter, rises and is drawn off as slag. Of course the bullion so obtained is nearly all lead, and the silver and lead must be separated by refining. Galena, when sufficiently pure, crystallizes in beautiful cubes; those, when crushed, break again into cubes, and so on indefinitely. In all the vast work- house of nature I know of nothing more marvelous than the |