PUESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION B. 47 



are included a c^rreafc variety of types. The really good prospector 

 must possess quite a special combination of qualities. The success 

 of many men in this particular sphere who have not any special 

 technical training is sufficient to show that such training is not 

 an essential qualification, although it is undoubtedly a very 

 desirable possession. 



A compelling desire for the free life which prospecting usually 

 involves, shrewd observation, untiring physical energy, an instinct 

 for minerals, and, above all, an inveterate optimism, are the 

 qualities most required. 



That this is so will be obvious from the well-known fact that 

 the born prospector rarely abandons his occupation, although so 

 few ever attain a material reward in any way adequate to the 

 energy they have put into its pursuit. This can scarcely be 

 wondered at when we consider the few mineral occurrences which 

 ever reach beyond the earlier stages of what may be called actual 

 mining propositions. Tlie Inspector of Mines for the Pretoria 

 district showed in a recent report that the proportion which were 

 so fortunate amounted only to some 5 per cent., the remaining 

 95 per cent, proving of no material worth, and this percentage is 

 boi-ne out by experience in other parts of the world. 



In what are usually referred to as the ' ' early days ' ' in this 

 countiy, we were, I believe, possessed of a considerable number 

 of really good prospectors, attracted here from many other parts 

 of the earth by the early gold discoveries. I am not at all sure 

 that we possess many such men to-day, the reason being perhaps 

 partly that newer fields have always the greatest attraction for 

 the prospector, and partly the poor inducement offered to such 

 men in South Africa to-day. One cannot help feeling that the 

 conditions under which the prospector works, and especially those 

 affecting his ability to secure the reasonable fruits of his labours, 

 might be greatly improved. 



One of the reasons why prospectors reap so little advantage 

 from such finds as they make is, perhaps, their disposition to attach 

 more importance to an immediate recompense in money than 

 to the retention of a share in whatever the future may hold for 

 the mineral deposits they may discover. 



The prospector pure and simple is most likely to succeed 

 with those mineral deposits which are more or less of a sporadic 

 kind, whose presence cannot be inferred from the wider principles 

 of geology, and whose exposure at the surface and consequent 

 discovery involve a large measure of chance and good fortune. 



Without doubt, many sporadic deposits are lying quite 

 close to the surface, but sufficiently well hidden by superficial 

 deposits to escape discovery by the methods of the ordinary 

 prospector. It is interesting, in this connection, to speculate as 

 to whether scientific effort will furnish any practical additional 

 means of prospecting for such aggregations of minerals. Eecent 

 advances, especially those made in connection with the late war, 

 in methods of detecting the presence of bodies which could not 



