“Here, I believe, we ought, too. For look what I have dredged up.”
“Coal!”
“It is coal. I found it close in shore, and there is more of it. Depend upon it, we have discovered a country rich in mineral wealth; and, if I am any judge, there is gold in abundance here, too. Look at this. There are specimens for you.”
He handed him a few pieces of rock as he spoke.
“Pretty morsels of stone enough,” said Claude, as he bandied and weighed them in his palm. “Would make nice ornaments for a mantelpiece. But do they really represent anything of value?”
“Well, I will tell you. You see I have numbered all these morsels of stone. Here is Number 1.” (Number 1 was a piece of dark brown stone mingled with patches of the darkest blue, in which little stars sparkled and shone.) “That,” said Dr Barrett, “is carbonate of copper ore. Number 2, you perceive, is black with streaks of green; that also is a copper ore of some value. Number 3—take hold of it, Mr McDonald,” continued the doctor, addressing the third mate. “What would you call it?”
“I should call it a chucky-stone,” was the Scotchman’s reply.
“Yes; well, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but that rough red-brown-black-spangled chucky-stone of yours is an argentiferous carbonate of lead. Number 3 is very heavy, and not unlike a piece of blacklead, only it shines more. That would give seventy ounces of solid silver from the ton of ore. Here is Number 4, a piece of quartz mixed with dark grey, and streaked with sea-green. That also is silver ore.”
“And this Number 5,” said McDonald, “looks to me like a bit of very bad coal. Is it worth a doit?”
“It is worth many doits. It will assay three hundred ounces or more of solid silver to the ton. Number 6 looks like a lump of petrified rhubarb root. Number 7 is somewhat similar, but mixed with quartz and a reddish brown material. Both are auriferous; the last will yield 300 pounds from each ton of ore.”