1864. | Mining, Mineralogy, and Metallurgy. 687 
is said that 66 ounces of gold were obtained from 44 ewt. of quartz ; 
and about two cubic yards gave 7 Ibs. of gold. At the Prince of 
Wales a new discovery is stated to have been made; and at the old 
Clogau copper mine. the quartz yiclds about 1 oz. of gold to the ton.* 
The reports of the Government Inspectors of Collicries for 1863 
have been published. They are satisfactory as compared with the 
previous year, which was unusually disastrous, and also as compared 
with 1861. The following tabulated summary of the deaths of colliers 
will place the number and character of the accidents at once before 
the reader i 
1862 1363. 
Explosions of fire-damp — . : - 190 163 
Falls of roof and coal, &e. . ; . 422 407 
In shafts. ; : : P Senlon 147 
Miscellancous accidents under-ground 
and at surface : : : . 384 190 
This last return—for 1862—includes the number sacrificed by the 
Hartley casualty, by which 204 men were lost. The total deaths in 
collieries in 1862 was 1,133, the deaths in 1863 being 907, or 226 less. 
It is admitted, on all sides, that the only method promising to 
improve permanently the condition of our mining population, and by 
improving the miner to lessen the number of accidents in working 
our mines and collieries, is to be sought in an improved education. 
Miners at present, for the most part, are entirely uninstructed in any 
of the principles involved in their labours. They are expected to use 
the precautions which science tells us should be employed, and yet we 
make no effort to teach them what those precautions are, or on what 
principles they depend. <A safety lamp is placed in the hands of a 
collier without his knowing one of the conditions which makes it a 
safety lamp. Yet the moment an ignorant man tampers with the wire 
gauze he is punished. Surely this is not consistent with reason or 
justice. Itis to be regretted that one of the most promising experiments 
towards educating the working miner is abandoned. The Glasgow 
School of Mines is shut up, subscriptions from the coal and iron 
masters of that wealthy district having entirely failed. We fear the 
British Mining School cannot be long continued; and the Miners’ 
Association of Cornwall and Devonshire does not appear to be in a 
healthful state. Surely, in a country producing minerals to the value 
of nearly thirty millions sterling, there should be found establishments 
in which so much of science as can be directly applied by the miner 
with advantage to his labours, might be obtained at small cost, and 
with but little sacrifice of time. The Royal School of Mines, as a 
central establishment, is all that can be desired ; but local schools in 
connection with it should be at once established. 
The application of machines to the cutting of coal appears to be 
becoming general. Several new patents have been obtained. One by 
Mr. Harrison, of Tudhoe Iron Works, is well spoken of, but we have 
* «Mining Journal,’ August 15, 1864. 
