CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
CONTENTS
THE ROMANCE OF ACCIDENT.
A DIFFICULT QUESTION.
A DREAM AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
ODD NOTES FROM QUEENSLAND.
TAKING IT COOLLY.
THE MONTH:
THE ROLL-CALL OF HOME.
| No. 731. | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1877. | Price 1½d. |
THE ROMANCE OF ACCIDENT.
Many of our most important inventions and discoveriesowe their origin to the most trivialcircumstances; from the simplest causes the mostimportant effects have ensued. The following area few culled at random for the amusement of ourreaders.
The trial of two robbers before the Court ofAssizes of the Basses-Pyrénées accidentally led toa most interesting archæological discovery. Theaccused, Rivas a shoemaker, and Bellier a weaver,by armed attacks on the highways and frequentburglaries, had spread terror around the neighbourhoodof Sisteron. The evidence against themwas clear; but no traces could be obtained of theplunder, until one of the men gave a clue to themystery. Rivas in his youth had been a shepherd-boynear that place, and knew the legend of theTrou d'Argent, a cavern on one of the mountainswith sides so precipitous as to be almostinaccessible, and which no one was ever knownto have reached. The Commissary of Police ofSisteron, after extraordinary labour, succeeded inscaling the mountain, and penetrated to themysterious grotto, where he discovered an enormousquantity of plunder of every description.The way having been once found, the vast cavernwas afterwards explored by savants; and theirresearches brought to light a number of Romanmedals of the third century, flint hatchets, ornamentedpottery, and the remains of ruminants ofenormous size. These interesting discoveries, however,obtained no indulgence for the accused(inadvertent) pioneers of science, who were sentencedto twenty years' hard labour.
The discovery of gold in Nevada was madeby some Mormon immigrants in 1850. Adventurerscrossed the Sierras and set up their sluice-boxesin the cañons; but it was gold they wereafter, and they never suspected the existenceof silver, nor knew it when they saw it. Thebluish stuff which was so abundant and whichwas silver ore, interfered with their operationsand gave them the greatest annoyance. Twobrothers named Grosch possessed more intelligencethan their fellow-workers, and were the realdiscoverers of the Comstock lode; but one of themdied from a pickaxe wound in the foot, and theother w