310 W. W. Smyth, Esq., on the 



prised to hear of similar failures, when we consider, first, the 

 comparatively short time over which a single man can extend 

 his experiences ; secondly, the great amount of phenomena 

 which must be observed and compared to form a ground- 

 work for practical geology ; and, thirdly, the numerous 

 branches of other arts and sciences, some of which should 

 properly precede its study, whilst others, immediately con- 

 nected with the duties of the mining agent, intervene to dis- 

 tract his attention, and render it difficult for him to attain a 

 great degree of proficiency in any one particular subject. 



On the continent of Europe several academies have been 

 founded, with the desirable object of supplying to miners a 

 knowledge of geology, and the kindred sciences, and of 

 establishing a storehouse of facts and experience, whence 

 they should be enabled to reap the harvest sown by those who 

 have gone before them, and should set forward on their own 

 career provided with such a stock of knowledge as to obviate 

 the necessity of passing a great portion of their lives in the 

 useless repetition of that which has been done before ; and 

 with the view of aff'ording them a facility, by beginning where 

 others have ended, — to form new links in the chain of im- 

 provement, and thus to carry out the process by which alone, 

 in every pursuit, we can hope to approach perfection. 



To argue at length for the advantages of such a system 

 would be here out of place ; no man will deny the justice of 

 the observation of the Roman poet — 



"Ego nee studium sine divite vena, 

 Nee rude quid possit video ingenium." 



And a suitable direction of the mind, and early exercised 

 acquaintance with established principles, is surely no less 

 necessary to the successful cultivation of the useful arts, 

 than to the ornamental branch of literature. 



The most remarkable of these mining colleges are those of 

 Freiberg in Saxony, and Schemnitz in Hungary, because 

 both situated in the centre of important mining and metal- 

 lurgical operations, and therefore combining the advantages 

 of general scientific instruction with the practical application 

 of the art. As no account, however, of their plan and work- 



