ages the arrival of these visitants from space was more frequent than at present, or perhaps more often noticed. However, the reduction of the metal from its most common ore―hematite— was a simple matter, as soon as the use of fire and the advantages of charcoal as a fuel became generally known, and the widespread occurrence of this ore was not favorable to the production of any particular excitement. With the ancients iron and steel production was never an industry, although it became the occupation of numerous individuals in all parts of the human family, who, either by accident or through intelligent study, became more or less proficient in the production of high-grade steel. In the Middle Ages Damascus and Toledo blades had a great vogue, as also certain brands of weapons and armor made in India. This we now know was due as much to the purity and freedom from phosphorus and sulphur of the ores from which these articles were made, as to the skill of the makers thereof. Also the fine heating qualities of the charcoal used had much to do with the favorable outcome, for it is now well known that certain kinds of wood, produced mainly in tropical or semi-tropical regions, will yield a charcoal of far higher metallurgical value than others. Fifty years ago Swedish charcoal iron and Russian planished iron were in great demand for special uses on account of their purity, resulting from the clean ore from which they were produced, and the fine fuel used. But both have now been supplanted by modern steels of many kinds.

Articles of iron, believed to have been fashioned as early as 4000 B.C., have been found in the Pyramids. The metal was extensively in use among the Assyrians from 2000 B.C. to 600 B.C., and among the Greeks from 800 B.C. When the Romans reached Britain in B.C. 55, they found it in common use among the aborigines of the country. During the Middle Ages (5th to 15th century) knowledge of and demand for the metal steadily increased, and by 1350 in Germany the science of heat production had reached the point where large iron castings became possible. This knowledge and proficiency spread into France and England, and when in 1740 the manufacture of good coke became possible

the industry was firmly established, especially in those places where there existed a superior quality of coking coal. It was this circumstance that carried the primacy in iron and steel manufacture to England, whose coke is still the best produced in Europe. In 1855 the industry was further advanced in England by the invention of the Bessemer converter; and this really marks the beginning of the modern art, which therefore is not much more than half a century old.

When bronze was supplanted by iron and steel for the manufacture of weapons and tools, tin mining languished wherever it had previously flourished. For there were few other uses for the metal than the production of bells, coins and statuary, which called for small quantities only. Hence the Chinese and Malay deposits were practically forgotten by the western nations, and when the metal was found in payable quantities in Spain, Austria, and Cornwall it caused little interest in the mining world. However, in 1789 Dutch experimenters of the city of Haarlem appear to have taken some first steps in the art of electroplating, about which there was much interest on the continent on account of the discoveries of Volta and Galvani in the same line. But it was not until after Faraday, in 1834, worked out the laws of electrolysis that tin plate manufacture became possible commercially, and that mining in Cornwall on the tin-bearing lodes that were so plentiful there, and that had been known ever since their discovery by the Phoenicians, attained its greatest days of prosperity, and gave to the Cornish miner the reputation he deservedly held for so long as a proficient in underground work.

In 1837 the first English patent describing a method of coating iron with zinc was granted, which laid the foundation of an industry that has since become even more important, for by that time the metallurgy of zinc had been fairly well worked out in Belgium and Germany, as well as in France.

The metallic character and properties of lead were well known to the Romans, as witness the crude piping made of the metal and put to use in many of the houses that have been uncovered in the ruins of Pompeii. But there is no evidence of any great produc

tion of the metal from even the Laurium mines in Greece, whose ores appear to have been worked mainly for their silver contents, in the recovery of which the bulk of the lead was volatilized and lost. The manufacture of paint, shot and piping are, and always have been, the principal uses to which this metal is put. But these are modern arts, and lead was in small demand previous to the 15th century.

Mercury also was a metal which the ancients used but little, although it was known certainly as early as 300 B.C. being supposed at first to be a liquid form of silver, from whence its other name. The Spanish mines at Almaden were worked in a desultory way by the Romans, but mainly for the raw ore-cinnabarfrom which the highly valued pigment vermilion was made. The Austrian mercury mines at Idria were not discovered until 1497, by which time someone had invented a process of making mirrors by coating one side of a sheet of glass with an amalgam of mercury and tin, in consequence of which a fair demand arose for the metal. This art is said to have had its origin in Venice, about 1300, from which it spread through Germany and France, reaching England in 1673. Previous to this invention mirrors were made of polished metal, either silver or bronze. In 1836 Liebig made the first attempt to substitute a silver for a tin amalgam, and the art was finally perfected in 1855 by Pettijean in France, where it has since attained its highest state of perfection.

CHAPTER II

HISTORY OF MINING AND OF MINING LAW SINCE THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

The general review of the subject in Chapter I shows that mining is really a very modern industry, and that mining law must of necessity be of recent origin. In fact, we may dismiss at once all expectations of discovering any more than its beginnings in Europe, or any other part of the old world; for, long before it was anything more than a haphazard occupation of individuals, the feudal system and its theories of land tenure had tied up all the land in the older settled parts of the globe, and made operations of any kind thereon dependent wholly upon the will of the local sovereigns, who promulgated such rules and regulations as they saw fit. These naturally were no more what would now be called law than were any of the other customs and regulations that have always accompanied the practice of human vassalage.

But upon the discovery of the new world, and the exploration of Mexico, Central, and South America, following the conquest and occupation by Spain and Portugal, a new era began. The stream of precious metal that came across the Atlantic, at first from the plunder of Aztec and Peruvian civilization, and later from placer deposits, attracted immediate attention, and drew a horde of adventurous spirits across the ocean, each with some kind of a recommendation from his European sovereign to the Viceroy of his nation in New Spain or New Portugal. At first these newcomers were easily taken care of. So long as there were desirable tracts of land to give away, grants were freely and even lavishly made. These gave to the grantees practically sovereign rights within their limits, including the native inhabitants as well, which held as long as agreed royalties were promptly remitted to

the Government. But a time soon came, even in the opening up of such a vast new area, when the few outcroppings of mineral known to the aborigines had been given away, and prospecting became a necessity. Up to this point the mining customs and regulations of the old world had simply been transplanted into the new, and consisted practically of such laws as were necessary, with the aid of the church, to keep the natives and the low-class, half-breed populations that had arisen in such a condition of poverty and dependence as would enable the land owners to command their services at practically no cost above that of food, shelter and clothing. The white man from Europe never became a prospector or miner. Such work was beneath his dignity. But he could induce or compel his subjects to explore, and so through offers of reward and threats of punishment many new and rich mineral areas were discovered. While this kind of exploration was in progress, difficulties frequently arose on account of the competing activity of the followers and subjects of the numerous Court favorites who had secured or had been promised grants, which in due time made necessary the promulgation of laws ostensibly intended for the encouragement of the mining industry, but really having for their object the prevention of such competition. But again they were no more in spirit than the rules and regulations that had preva led in Europe for centuries, modified only to such an extent as was made necessary by reason of the different character of the subject population and the freer environment of a newly opened land. The old world peasant, after centuries of oppression and deprivation, had lost hope, had become servile, and had learned to make the best of it. His brother in the new world accepted the yoke only as a last resort, and after every avenue of resistance or.escape had been tried in vain. As a result of this bitter contest there came a time when for each of the colonies the mining industry began to decline, and ultimately ceased to be of importance. As the old mines became exhausted, or, reaching water level, could not be worked profitably any longer, there was nothing in the way of new discoveries to take their place. In 1571 the Inquisition was introduced from