My experiments with volcanoesJaggar, Thomas Augustus
Science
My experiments with volcanoes
Jaggar, Thomas Augustus
Geologists -- Biography; Volcanoes
Granitization, then, is a process of heat pressure, gases, melting,
and crystal making, of which the ancient words magma or emulsion or
paste give no conception. And volcanism, up through the deep crust, is
the mystery devil. May it not be nucleonics and melting of deep crust,
rather than chemistry? And is not the mystery devil always hydrogen gas?
At the beginning of the twentieth century I visited two places which
are close together and related to the Bradshaw Mountains. One was
Searchlight in the southern tip of Nevada, the other was the Grand
Canyon of the Colorado River.
I shall never forget my arrival in Searchlight. A strike of miners was
going on, and Stanford geology students had been sent in as strike
breakers. Big Bill, the sheriff, brought the boys across the desert
from the railway. His buckboard was in front and the Stanforders
followed in a wagon. The strikers lined the road out from Searchlight,
intent on loosing the horses. But when they saw Bill’s star and his
notched six-shooter, they dropped their hands to their sides and stood
like a row of tin soldiers, while Big Bill led the way through at a
gallop, cursing them roundly.
When I got off the train at Ivanpah, a small place with only a few
houses, I spoke to a young station agent where the ancient Wells Fargo
sign hung. He told me that the Quartette Mine team would meet me soon,
and shortly a cloud of dust on the desert proclaimed the vehicle which
came dashing up, a phaeton rig with two big horses. The five men inside
were armed, with rifles and pump shotguns protruding. One man pulled
out a heavy leathern pouch, and another stood over it with his rifle.
“Come on, Jack, lets go over to Wolf Saloon.” “No,” said Jack, “not
till I get my receipt.” The mild station man yanked out a receipt
book, filled the blank acknowledging $20,000 in bullion from the mine,
threw the pouch into an open safe, and Jack with his receipt departed,
leaving the gold brick to the mystic protection of that sign, “Wells
Fargo and Co.” Two ablebodied bandits could easily have held up the
whole rail terminus.
When I started for the mine, accompanied by detectives and guards, we
all carried pistols in holsters strapped under our arms. En route, we
spent Christmas amid the smell of sagebrush and the glorious sunset
lights of a purple desert. Once more I murmured, “So this is natural
history.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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