348 Transactions. — Geology. 



of water in the ocean. They have their effect, but it is very 

 slight. These cannot afford to pay to have assays made of every 

 mineral they may find, so confine their prospecting to the more 

 easily recognised gold. By having assays made free, not only 

 are these encouraged to search for other minerals, but it de- 

 velopes another class of amateur geologists, so to call them, who 

 are interested in knowing what any ore they may find contains. 

 This class greatly increases the number of explorers and 

 searchers, and some of the most valuable mineral deposits have 

 been discovered through them. Davies, in his " Metalliferous 

 Minerals and Mining," says: "As a matter of experience, we 

 have seen that many of the richest mines have been discovered 

 by accident : the wayfarer, resting in the wilds of the Saxon 

 forest ; or the muleteer, in scrambling after his mule in Brazil. 

 The curiosity excited by the great weight of the stone in Cali- 

 fornia Gulch led to the discovery of carbonate of lead." These 

 are a few examples of what at first sight seems to be the 

 accidental discovery of mines. But such discoveries were acci- 

 dental only by reason of the previous ignorance or indifference 

 of the dwellers in the land ; for in each of the above illustra- 

 tions there were natural indications which would make it plain 

 to intelligent seekers that valuable minerals were near. The 

 establishment of a School of Mines would greatly assist in 

 removing ignorance and indifference ; for with more knowledge 

 would come greater interest, and to young men especially such 

 instruction must be useful. I believe it would give to mining a 

 truer and higher tone than it has at present, when miners are 

 miners if it enables scrip-holders to sell their scrip at a ficti- 

 tious value ; and the study of scrip-holders now is not so much 

 what is best for the mine, as what will enable them to sell their 

 scrip at a profit. This degrades mining from an honest specula- 

 tion to a kind of fraudulent gambling, very injurious to the 

 mining industry. 



Before entering upon the advantages we possess in the 

 Nelson District for treating ores which require to be smelted to 

 obtain the valuable metals they contain, it may be as well to 

 show what is required to do so successfully. Briefly, we may 

 say that these are accessibility, cheap fuel, flux, and power. 

 We can get an instructive lesson from La Monte's smelting 

 at the Thames last year, which, although a failure — in so 

 far that it did not do what he stated that it would — shows 

 forcibly several causes of failure. La Monte engaged to m\w 

 90 per cent, of the gold and silver in the ore, at a cost of 

 £2 per ton ; but he did not succeed in saving that percentage, 

 and it cost £G 15s. per ton for treatment. Possibly La Monte 

 had been used to ores which contained the necessary flux in 

 themselves, and he did not calculate the cost and quantity that 

 the quartz ores he had to treat would require ; hence we find that 



