Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-03-22
knowledge of Mineralogy-Its Inn
poriance to the Miner.


series Of articles in the Mining and Scien-
tiic Press. The article is addressed more
particularly to the miners of California, but
applies equally, and perhaps even in greater
degree, to the those of this Territory. The
almost infinite variety Of metals with which
the lodges of this country teens, i'll almost
every conceivable form and combination,
render it a most splendid field for the scien-
tifc geoogist and mineraiogisti and knowl-
edge of those sciences is indispensable to a
thorough prospecting and investigation Of
mineral district. The writer says:
s. The practical miner seldom holds mineralogy
or geology in much estimation, and smiles 1t the
nice determinations OF the Elineralogist II any
enquiry into the interesting phenomenal OF metal
literous VEINS b. made OF HIM. he generally prefers
the theory of his fOrcfathtrS 10 that which has
arisen from the results OF more recent scientific
Investigations.
Unjust not be inferred from the foregoing re.
marks that undervalue practical knowledge 20
far from this am convinced that scientific, apar:
from practical knowledge, would lead to errone.
Gus and occasionally runous results.
Ii is surely clear to all that the miner ought TO
be thoroughly acquainted with the nature Of
those substances which 1t is his daily task TO seek
in the recesses of the earth, as well as with those
which exert q favorable or pernicioas influence
either on the abundance or quality of the objects
Of his search. For instance the presence OF ga.
lena (sulphurct of lead and bende (sulphuret OF
znc) in the aurifrrous veins of ms district are
perhaps as good an indication OF the richness OF
the vein as any We have, where the gold itself is
not visible. When ii is necessary To assert the
vcinstoue so rs 10 reject the poorer parts before
IN, Of In linn
gold mines. a knowledge Of nineralogy Is OF
great assistance. The separation by the hammer
"a most important process) is but little used in
this state. Some of the mining districts OF Great
Britain are utterly destitute OF the means OF mime
ralogical education, aud il is common 10 lind some
Of the most intelligent miners only acquainted
with one or two substances which are brought
prominently before them in the routine Of their
employment.
Ii is fact, that for some years lime was export
ed TO New Sou n Wales, where IL existed in album
dance in its natural state aud it is notorious that
the discovery Of gold in Australia was not nude
till after it was found in this country.
Cornwall although il has been celebrated Tor It's
tin mines from the earliest periods Of history yet,
until the last century, the ores OF copper were
used to repair the roads, and whenever copper ap-
pearcd in a ven it was common expression that
''the ore came in and spOit the Vein Even when
the yellow copper pyriteS had been long up
preciated. the sulphdc of copper had been thrown
ayvav and the rich, black ore or oxide OF copper,
was washed into the rivers
In Derbvshire aud Cumberland, although It Is
indispuiable that lead has been smelted from the
common blue ore (sulphuret of lead) ever since
the government of the Romans, yet the other ores
of the same metal (whte carbonates Of lead, sic.,)
were never thought Of but left in heaps as ruOolSh
.-the public roa,ls whic h had in some instances
been repaired with these rejected ores, have been
taken up and s.nclipd too good account The ores
-. r,nNa gnrll
wise thrown away in many Of the mining districts
of England. until within the last few years. l
have known blonde mistaken for lead ore, and q
hearth erected to reduce il, and in another case,
from its resemblance TO 4 certain iron ore consd-
cradle quantiI,- was bought and conveyed 10 one
of the largest iron works in south Wales.
did not suppose when assisting TO collect the
series of iron ores for the Great Exhibition of
1851, that the few stones l took from the Oolitic
formation would have been attended with such
important results. II soon after led 10 the dis
covery that the road into Northampton had been
cut through rich iron ore, which in some places
had thickness of twelve feet. Then they were
iInorant of it's value. but now il is being sent In
Immense quantities to supply tho statordshire
iron works.
So much having been overlooked in country
densely populated like Great Britain, whose mines
now yield on an average about 900 per
aunum it is reasonable to conclude that still fur
Their and more important discoveries VIII yet De
made in this State.
1t il true that tho most valuable productions Of
the mineral kingdom are met with in such Il state
of impuriiy from mechanical aggregation and nd
mixiures that the particular minerals OF which
tkev are com posed are not separuble by physical
means; others occur only in an amorphous OF IT.
regularly shaped condition, and that scientific
lniuerAlogy describes only the most perfect indt-
viduus, or crystals of each species; bodies which
are rarely met with-hcnce the necessity rad al.
vaatage OF good collection OF minerals and the
urea, impor;ancp to 4 tate like California to have
a museum of pructcal minertogy and geology.