GOLD AND SILVER.	865
	the entire United States. It seems certain, however, that of late years the quantity of quicksilver consumed in the amalgamation process has been greatly overestimated. In the writer's report on quicksilver, in Mineral Resources for 1914, he estimates that only 87,181 pounds of quicksilver were thus consumed in 1913, against 89,675 pounds in 1912 and 96,783 pounds in 1911. This indicates a use of only 1,150 to 1,290 flasks, or about 8 per cent of the domestic output of quicksilver. Since the outbreak of the European war a shortage of potassium cyanide developed, owing to the difficulty of importation from Germany and the need of practically all the English output for the Rand mines in South Africa. Even before the war, however, plans were made for increased output and use of sodium cyanide and this could be produced in greater quantity in this country if future conditions warranted. The consumption of these cyanides in three of the Western States is shown in the follow­ing table: