490 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



outcrop on their properties. Thej' are not so much interested in the 

 possible minerals beneath the surface as tliey are in the matters and 

 affairs above the surface; and this fact suggests many instances of 

 the dense and ridiculous ignorance of this science that have come 

 under my observation while engaged in making investigations and 

 researches in various counties and states. 



Almost anywhere or everywhere I have found people who can relate 

 stories or traditions of supposed or reported minerals of fabulous 

 quantity or value, and often have I been assured that coal, iron ore, 

 gold, silver, lead, copper, zinc or other minerals are really present 

 or to be found in certain places or localities; only to be revealed, 

 however, to me or some one else, upon the payment of a round sum 

 of money ; and, the money not being forthcoming, the knowledge of 

 the whereabouts of the reputed mineral discovery disappears with 

 the man "who knew all about it ;" but, who, nevertheless, went away 

 or died in penury and poverty without even disclosing the facts to his 

 indigent and helpless heirs. 



The absurdity of very many of these tales, geological legends and 

 traditions, is made evident and manifest to one having some practical 

 knowledge of geology, by the fact that the reported deposit is 

 usually said to be in some strata, mountain, hill or valley, whereof 

 the rock exposures, geological structure or period absolutely forbid 

 the presence of such mineral, or wherein it is not possible for such 

 values to be present from the very character of the formations there- 

 abouts. These various tales afford no small diversion and amusement 

 during the somewhat irksome labor of exploring or prospecting 

 properties, and it is wonderful what credulity and expectation in 

 outlandish places. Some are sincere and honest ; others are engaged 

 in deliberate deception. Thus, a certain squatter and hunter, in one 

 of the adjoining counties, related to me how he had discovered coal, 

 iron ore and other valuable mineral deposits, among which was "a bed 

 of steel four feet in thickness." Having some knowledge of the man's 

 thieving propensities, for he had such a reputation, I was disposed 

 to say that I knew where there were six feet of steel (steal) ; but my 

 misgivings about the effect of such a remark restrained me from 

 making it, as a passage at arms, at that place, would not have been 

 to my advantage. A local preacher in Cameron county agreed to 

 show me where he had opened four feet of coal, but when we ar- 

 rived at the place and he reopened the pit, evidently sunk many years 

 before, no coal appeared and none could have been formed in the 

 rock period in which he had been digging. This seemed to be a clear 

 case of geological fancy, dream or delusion, as the man was of good 

 repute and evidently sincere. 



Men of this kind, and harboring such fallacies and notions, are to 

 be found in almost every community ; such, for instance, as the young 

 man in one of our small towns, who found (?) an excellent specimen 

 of gold quartz while sitting near a spring under a ledge of rocks; 

 others in our county, and doubtless in most of the other counties, 

 who have discovered magnetic iron ore in large amount and have 

 shown splendid samples thereof to credulous, though intelligent, mer- 

 chants, lumbermen, farmers, and occasionally even a lawyer. These 

 smart "Alecs" and local prospectors, of their kind, usually know, 

 or profess to know, the whereabouts of the ore, but fail to show it; 

 and the deception intended or the ignorance that besets the minds of 



