Arizona silver belt., 1899-12-07

may seem rather harsh, the distinction
 may appeal to every one who has any knowledge of this subject. Every 1 mining excitement breeds group of experts whose mining pedigrees can ] usually be traced to the beginning of l the excitement, and whose mining ! knoweledge has probably been acquired
 in neighboring newspaper office,
 cornield or country store. How, then,
 does the tenderfoot pick the proper man? Preferably, of course, by per sonal contact, and as the result of personal judgment in sizing up man,
 which is one of the first essentials of successful business men. Secondly, he must consider the character of his
 report very carefully before investing upon the strength of it. Does it bear
 the earmarks of business document,
 or is it a pseudo-Scientifc document
 that starts with the nebular hypothe-
 sis and ends with the latest geological
 theory, with an incidental reference
 to the property in question. In the
 latter case, beware. The experienced,
 reliable engineer or expert, If some
 prefer that term, takes as lite for granted as possible and does very little
 prophesying, while he uses with great caution such terms as true Assure veins,
 inHFAp. piahIall and NRtiAt if |, depth, nearneSS to rich property,
 vein crossing, etc. The inexperienced expert gives full range to his immagI- nation. He uses these terms indis- criminately and reads the horoscope of a mining property with the assurance given only by that wonderful search ing glass invented by Mr. Frank Stockton in his story Of the Great Stone of SardiS. We would not pre-.
 tend t0 say in detail what a mining expert should be and should not be. but the following suggestions, given by MT. Walter McDermott, before the London Institute of Mining and Met allurgy some years ago will give the investor some of the earmarks by which a good report can be judged. A report need not be lOng-winded to justify the fee paid for it, but should be so full m actual description as to enable reader inexperienced in min ing to draw his own conclusions from the facts given, without having to trust entirely to the deductions of the wri- ter The important details to be set forth clearly are these relating to pc sitiOn and facility of access of the property, local conditions as to fuel and water and timber supply; extent and forms of openings; variations in th c,inesS of deposit; character and value and form of occurrence Uf ore. It IS important in giving clear idea O. the property that the distribution of the payable ore in the deposit should be described. It makes q great differ enCe sometimes in the conclusions to be drawn. whether the value consists in a uniform value throughout the rock. On account of the necessity for this description il is not always suili- cient to state that an average width of vein contains an average of so much value per ton. as this may be in the nature of d conclusion, not of Il fact, and so may need to be justified by the detailed facts of the report. The eX- tent and character of the dump piles at a worked mine often afford valuable conGrmatory evidence as to the char acter and value of the property. l have seen reports in which piles of rich ore were stated to be on hand in the mine in certain quantity and value, but in figuring out the experts own statement as tO width of pay ore and extent of openings, it was clear that the hole in the ground could not hold the ore said to have come out of it. The coniiguration of stopes in a worked mine often give very sugges- tive ideas as to the run of pay ore and as to the probable character of the ground still standing. Geology and mineralogy should naturally be used with discretion, but only for purposes actually bearing on the description and conclusions to be drawn, not for mere padding nor for the airing of theories better treated in purely sci entiiic paper"