A GOLD MINE IN THE SEA.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue XIV, 2 April 1898, Page 426

A GOLD MINE IN THE SEA.

The sea has at last been made to give up her gold under the magical wand of the Rev. Prescott Jernigan, a Baptist minister in Florida, who has deserted the Church to hunt for gold. It was while Mr Jernigan was recovering from an attack of typhoid fever that his attention was arrested by an article on the ‘Gold in the Sea.’ He dwelt long on the idea, and as his strength returned, resolved to discover a method by which the gold could be extracted from its liquid mine. After many months of research and experiment the secret was mastered, and in company with Mr Ryan, a Baptist Sunday-school superintendent, the reverend inventor was successful in raising a capital of £ 10,000 with which to commence operations. Working with very inadequate appliances, he had already found gold in paying quantities, and shows quite a small fortune in nuggets and dust, the fruits of his solitary experiments. He now proposes to build his apparatus across some of the narrow creeks in Passamaquoddy Bay, Maine, where the work can be conducted in secrecy. In these creeks the tide rises and falls 20ft. This gives a speed of six miles an hour: and thus, with each rise and fall of the tide, thirtysix miles of water pass through the apparatus, depositing their gold as they pass. The managers expect thus to deal with 4,000 tons of water a day, and to realise a profit, from the working. of £2.000 a week, with which for a time they will be content. The process, which is a- profound secret, is said to be electrical; and of its genuineness there can be no question. The company’s capital of $lOO,OOO is already subscribed; and as the mine is, humanly speaking, inexhaustible, the followers of the exreverend pioneer should realise a fortune.