Sierra County advocate. [volume] (Kingston, N.M.) 1884-1960, 1891-05-15
MINING GEOLOGY AS A
SCIENCE.

N. Y. Financial AMI Miaing Review.
When we consider that mining Il
one Of the Oldest arts, that it hal
reached an extraordinary extension
and is prosecuted with great intel
ligence, it is remarkable that so lit
tie should be known OF ore de-
posits. No part of the earth's crust
has received such searching atten-
tion as its veins, and yet there il
no branch of geology of the metals
We do not know whether ores
"make" in depth or not, whether
veins are confined to the extreme
outer circle of the crust or continue
to depths beyond the reach of min.
ing machinery. OF those that are
opened we cannot say whether til cir
contents have been gathered from
the "orlginal way" of the globe,
from the deep sedimentry rocks
which Immediately overlie it, or
from those strata IN which the veins
are found. We cannot imagine a
reason why one-half of an ore- body
should contain different proper
ton Of gold to silver, than the
other half; why quartz should al
most invariably be an accompanl-
ment of the metals, why most OF
them should be mIneralized by sui
phur. The remarkable fact that
ore bodies rarely follow precisely
the dip of the vein but almost al.
ways pitch one way or another in
the direction of the strike is SO con.
stantly observed, that miners have
little confidence in bonanza that
does not exhibit this pecularity.
and yet the occurrence is SO puzzling
that no attempt to explain has been
made.
1t is true that some explanation
has been found for some of these
points. There are dozens of experts
who would 60 on the stand, if called,
and swear to some theory to ac-
count for any one Of them, but none
the less is the fact that really there
is no explanation which is gener-
ally received. The very latest
works on mining geology are not in
accord, and though they present
views which, for the most part, date
from the earliest years of geological
science, their dogmas are not yet
established but remain dispute to
this day. The whole subject of
geology is in a chaotic
state, and there Is no one of the gen.
eral theories which is not confront
ed by grave doubts.
The reason for this unsatisfactory
state of things seems to lie in the ex-
traordinary conservatism OF scien-
tific men. Judge Field struck the
right chord some years since In the
Eureka decision, wherein he said
that the geologists, on one side, at
all times carried in their minds the
scientific definition OF the term as
given by geologists, that lode is
assure in the earth's crust filled
with mineral matter. That defini-
tion, so far as modern geology is
dates from the time of
in the last century, and, III
spite of the immense amount of con-
experience since his day,
BIOLOGISTS OF all schools still look
upon it as a foundation stone in
heir theories. The miners are COM
1elled to follow the geologists
hough their experience constantly ,
lenies the truth of the supposition. !
Out of this conception an absurd
Iystem of classification has grown
lp which consists simply of the
rue fissure vein and its exceptions, q
he latter displayed as so many diff
erent kinds OF deposits. The mod
rn geologlst seems to have moth
ng to offer in improvement of the :
cheme, and the books which have c
een most recently published are a
,ostly mere rehashes of the old u
leas. Few if any of them exhibit :
ne facts of mineral deposits in re- :,
ard to their position, shape and h
rigiu, as modern mining has dIs IL
osed them. In fact, it is exceed 8