Mining Academies of Saxony and Hungary. 315 



sures, the new red sandstone, the green sand, and chalk marl, 

 with the intrusive masses of porphyry and syenite. 



The metalliferous veins, exhibiting very distinct characters, 

 may be classed in several groups, and present every species 

 of relation one to the other : whilst in a circle round the 

 town, with a radius of about three miles, they give occasion 

 to the working of nearly 100 mines, where about 200 shafts, 

 71,000 fathoms of adit or water gallery, and about 250,000 

 fathoms of level or gallery, exhibit every species of timbering 

 and masonry as used in mining. In the neighbouring valley 

 of the Mulde, the ores are daily roasted and smelted in 

 twenty or thirty furnaces of various construction, and the 

 beautiful process of amalgamation is always to be seen in 

 action. 



The Academy of Schemnitz was founded during the reign 

 of the Empress Maria Theresa, about the year 1760, for the 

 purpose of educating officers to superintend the mining and 

 smelting works throughout the whole of the Austrian domi- 

 nions. The extent of the provinces composing the monarchy, 

 and the low state of education in the more distant portions, 

 made it very necessary to place under the direction of well- 

 instructed men the management of departments so various 

 as metalliferous mines, salt works, collieries, iron works, 

 smelting furnaces, and forests, all of which are in some places 

 in the hands of the Crown. The number of students has of 

 late years considerably increased, and comprises not only 

 those who seek for government employment, but also many 

 who are sent by individuals, or by mining companies, to pass 

 through the whole routine of study, or to attend only some 

 particular courses, according to the nature of the operations 

 which it is intended they should conduct. 



Independently of political motives, which influenced the 

 choice, Schemnitz offers great advantages for the site of a 

 mining college. The mines adjacent to the town and distri- 

 buted through the surrounding district, produce in large 

 quantity ores of gold, silver, copper, lead, antimony, and iron, 

 and numerous smelting works are supplied with fuel by the 

 thick forests of oak, pine, and beech which clothe the hills. 



