rms and temporary floods. It is the only metal of a yellow color; it
is readily crystallizable, and always assumes one or more of the
symmetrical shapes, such as the cube or regular octahedron. It affords a
resplendent polish, and may be exposed to the atmosphere for any length
of time, without suffering any change; it is remarkable for its beauty;
is nineteen times heavier than water, and, next to platinum, the
heaviest known substance; its malleability is such, that a cubic inch
will cover thirty-five hundred square feet; its ductility is such, that
a lump of the value of four hundred dollars could be drawn into a wire
which would extend around the globe. It is first mentioned in Genesis
ii, 11. It was found in the country of Havilah, where the rivers
Euphrates and Tigris unite and discharge their waters into the Persian
gulf.

The relative value of gold to silver in the days of the patriarch
Abraham was one to eight; at the period of B.C. 1000, it was one to
twelve; B.C. 500, it was one to thirteen; at the commencement of the
Christian era, it was one to nine; A.D. 500, it was one to eighteen;
A.D. 1100, it was one to eight; A.D. 1400, it was one to eleven; A.D.
1613, it was one to thirteen; A.D. 1700, it was one to fifteen and a
half; which latter ratio, with but slight variation, it has maintained
to the present day. Gold was considered bullion in Palestine for a long
period after silver had been current as money. The first mention of gold
money in the Bible is in David's reign (B.C. 1056), when that king
purchased the threshing floor of Oman for six hundred shekels of gold by
weight. In the early period of Grecian history the quantity of the
precious metals increased but slowly; the circulating medium did not
increase in proportion with the quantity of bullion. In the earliest
days of Greece, the precious metals existed in great abundance in the
Levant. Cabul and Little Thibet (B.C. 500) were abundant in gold. It
seems to be a well ascertained fact, that it was obtained near the
surface; so that countries, which formerly yielded the metal in great
abundance, are now entirely destitute of it. Croesus (B.C. 560) coined
the golden _stater_, which contained one hundred and thirty-three grains
of pure metal. Darius, son of Hystaspes (B.C. 538), coined _darics_,
containing one hundred and twenty-one grains of pure metal, which were
preferred, for several ages throughout the East, for their fineness.
Next to the _darics_