(From the Colombo Observer, March 27th, 1854.) MR. HOPKINS' PAMPHLET.
We
have seen a copy of the pamphlet so mysteriously alluded to by Dr.
Kelaart and are by no means inclined to cry out " Eureka!" The writer
has a theory which he embodied in a big book, and the object of the
smaller one published at Melbourne seems to be chiefly to draw
attention to this theory and to support it. The theory is a very pretty
one with doubtless much of truth in it, and it appears to have been
found practically valuable. It is no new discovery that crystallization
obeys certain fixed geometrical liws, nor is the idea novel that
magnetism is the principal agent at work in giving to minerals their
distinctive shapes. Mr. Hopkins merely goes a little further than
others in a certain direction; explaining by reference to his own
theory what others have attributed to ignious agencies of which he
pretend.; to see as little in the great mountain ranges which intersect
the globe as in the scatÂtered deposits of metals and minerals found
within their bosoms or lying at their bases. " Terrestrial Magnetism,
the polarity of matter and the meridional structure of the crystalline
rocks" are the catch words of his geological faith. His main principle
is that " Nothing can destroy the active and reproductive principles of
the mineral kingdom. In the deep recesses of the crystalline film the
subtle power of polarity is present, constantly permeating beneath the
scene of vegetable and animal life, and a never-ending process is going
on, giving fomi to mineral matter in all its variety, from the
formation of a crystal to the aggregation of crystals which constitute
a Continent."
He
must be a man after Mr. Simms' own heart. He dwells with horror on the
variations of the needle which may put the boundaries of a survey out in a few years, and
he agrees with our Surveyor-General that great base lines and
trigonometry should be at the foundation of all surveys. But neither
those who dig for grains of gold or to produce " Golden drain" can wait
to study trigonometry or to start from base lines. We sympathize with
Mr. Hopkins however in his preference for water and there is rro
denying the composing power which he attributes to felspar. We see it
daily converting our granitic gneiss into useful cabook and good soil,
while even the glass-like quartz, affected by the same subtle agency,
is forced to yield up the wealth of gems or metals which its maternal
bosom encloses. Felspalhic rocks are the richest in minerals and the
rocks of Ceylon are highly felspathic —that is a fact indisputable: and
if we have not large deposits of gold now, they will groiv with
the lapse of ages and for the use of future generations. Posterity has
certainly done nothing for us, and yet we can rejoice at its good
prospects. Here we have still stronger proofs that the root and
twig-like gold of the Mahawanso was a substantial verity, for Mr.
Hopkins is decidedly of opinion that the roots of trees and even
grasses exercise a decided influence on gold in the process of
formation. The roots of large trees should, therefore, be searched in
the neighbourhood of the Maha Oya and other Diggings. One of the tales
that delighted the childhood of most of us was the discovery of the
silver mines of Peru by the accident of an Indian grasping and
uprooting a shrub to save himself from falling, the discoverer
enriching himself before he revealed the seciet. Mr. Hopkins has seen
gold formed in trie shapes of ferns or corals, and deposited in old
mines on leaves of trees. A long account of the supposed process is
given, tending to this principle, that "carbonate of soda is a most
important substance to sprinkle in a poor soil to liberate the elements
of the crystalline rocks to feed the roots of plants: the required
nourishment is thus absorbed from the soil, and the metals and other
ingredients rejected by the roots are left behind like indigeslib'e
substance. The roots of trees take up the potash and leave the gold
behind. In the same manner [?] the ferruginous rocks forming red caps
on hills by the decomposition of the iron, are favourable for the
liberation and development of the gold, contained in auriferous slates.
Hence the red hills are favourable localities to the gold digger," lWe are
