over $2,000,000 worth of gold was taken. This will probably slowly
decrease for the next ten or twenty years. From gold and silver-bearing
quartz mines $55,000,000 was taken.

No calculation can be made as to the amount of gold contained in quartz
mines. New discoveries are always probable and many new mines are opened
up each year, but their value can only be estimated as the work in them
progresses.

Just how long they will last nobody knows, but it would seem that their
decline is far off. The government report says, "Unless very important
new discoveries are made it is thought unlikely that the production of
gold in the United States will rise much above $110,000,000; nor is it
likely that it will sink below $60,000,000 within a long period of
years."

The amount of gold used in the United States is about equal to the
production. Nearly $80,000,000 is coined into money, and about half as
much is used in the arts,--that is, for jewelry, tableware, in
dentistry, in bookbinding, and various chemical processes. The quantity
used in the arts has doubled since 1900. In 1907 the stock of gold coin
in the United States, according to the Director of the Mint, was
$1,600,000,000, which is almost exactly one-fifth of the gold coin of
the world.

The production of gold is rapidly increasing. Since 1850 we have mined
three times as much gold as in all the previous time since the
discovery of America. Such rapid production greatly shortens the life of
the gold supply. When the gold fields of southern Africa were first
opened they were said to be inexhaustible; but they have been mined so
rapidly, and the supply has proved so far short of the first excited
estimates that experts say that the entire region will be almost
exhausted within twenty years. The loss of gold in mining and refining
is comparatively small. In extracting gold from the cheaper ores the
percentage of loss is large; but as only a small part of the gold is
gained in this way the total loss is relatively small. By other methods
ninety-five per cent. or more is saved. In many cases the loss is too
small to be considered.

Unlike other minerals little gold is destroyed by use. It is melted and
remelted, all scraps are used, even the sweepings from the mint and from
manufacturing goldsmiths' shops are saved and the gold used. The waste
of the world's gold and silver would be much greater but for the use of
paper money, bank checks, and notes. Their very gener