LVIII THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



oughly efficient persons to enforce existing government regulations 

 is the most important factor required in the meantime to give to our 

 forests the prominent place which they should have among the per- 

 manent assets of the people of Canada. 



Mines. 



Mining is the only industry in a country which from the very 

 nature of the case cannot be permanent. Other industries — like money 

 well invested — can be made to yield an annual return in interest while 

 the capital remains unimpaired or even increases in value. 



The mineral wealth of a country may be compared to a sum of 

 money hidden in the ground. It does not renew itself and every dollar 

 abstracted leaves just so much less for future use. "Yet it is a singular 

 fact," as remarked by a recent writer referring to the United States, 

 "that among a people supposedly grounded in the rudiments of polit- 

 ical economy, the progressive exhaustion of this precious resource 

 is everywhere heralded as a triumph of enterprise and a gauge of na- 

 tional prosperity. The nation publishes periodically the record of 

 its scattering of assets never to be regained and waits with a smile 

 of complacence for general congratulation." 



Great mining regions in the older countries of the world worked 

 for many years have now become exhausted. Among these may be 

 instanced the Kongsberg Mines in Norway, which at one tir te pro- 

 duced great masses of native silver rivalling those now obtained from 

 Cobalt; the lead mines of Great Britain, now completely abandoned; 

 the celebrated mines of the region about Freiberg in Saxony, worked 

 continuously since A.D. 1160, the last of which is now about to be 

 closed down; and the great diamond fields of India, which no longer 

 yield these precious gems. 



In modern times with the introduction of high explosives and 

 modern machinery, the exhaustion of any mineral deposit is much 

 more speedily attained than with the cruder appliances of former times, 

 and while under these modern conditions some of our great mining 

 camps, as for instance that of the Sudbury district, will continue 

 to yield an enormous output for many years or perhaps decades yet 

 to come, others, such as the Cobalt district, have already passed their 

 time of maximum yield, and the output while still very large is falling 

 off. In the United States the anthracite supply is approaching ex- 

 haustion which is a fact of portent not only for the people of the United 

 States but also for the people of eastern and central Canada, for all 

 our supplies of this most valuable fuel are drawn from the mines of 

 Pennsylvania. 



