Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 385 



other's success: let us not wish to avoid this rivalry, but let us 

 keep it within the bounds of manly and friendly competition, and 

 it will be productive of nothing but good; and the advances which 

 are made, be they by one or another, will have their natural ten- 

 dency to the benefit of the whole. 



Mining, then, in Cornwall became not so much a matter of 

 chance as of systematized experience and careful management ; 

 sail, however, attended by those uncertainties to which it is pro- 

 verbially liable, which defy the greatest experience and bafHe the 

 soundest judgement in many instances. 



It is no reproach to a country not to adopt new methods before 

 they are wanted, as it is also vvise to consider and follow them 

 when circumstances render them applicable. Most have discovered 

 certain practices suited to their own case, and it is absurd to under- 

 value or discard any thing for the sake of novelty; but we may 

 safely take advantage of the experience of others, and no man's 

 knowledge extends so far that he may not profit by inquiry and 

 observation ; and this is perhaps more especially true as to mining. 

 What was commenced long ago has been much accelerated and 

 systematized in the last 20 years ; many abuses have been corrected, 

 and public opinion has exerted its influence in this as well as in 

 other things. The improvements that have thus been introduced 

 may perhaps be divided into two classes, technical and moral : the 

 first applying to the direction of the works and the apparatus by 

 which they are -issisted ; and the other to the government of the 

 agents and men by whom the operations are performed. Some 

 account of the principal improvements of the last 20 years has 

 lately been published in the transactions of the Royal Cornwall 

 Geological Society, by my friend Mr. Joseph Carne, of Penzance ; 

 and I should have been glad if I could have referred to them in 

 thinking of this short abstract of them. I should arrange, however, 



the technical improvement under the following heads : 1st, A 



systematic mode of conducting trials modified by experience of'the 

 circumstances, instead of chance efforts or irregular attempts. By 

 this, expense is diminished, and a foresight is employed by which 

 useless works are avoided ; a smaller number of shafts require to 

 be sunk, and the levels are niade to lay open the ground, and leave 

 it in the state most favourable to be worked away, and as free as 

 possible from the interruptions from water and other impediments. 

 2nd, The fluctuating nature of the produce of mines has been at- 

 tempted to be corrected by a judicious advance of the works of 

 discovery, so as to precede those of exhaustion, or to govern the 

 quantities of ore raised in some degree by the progress t>f discovery, 

 liy a prudence in this res^ject many mines have not only long been 

 maintained in a profitable state, but it is umst certain that many 

 most valuable discoveries have been made, which otherwise would 

 have been lost ; and their success has attended the re-opcning 

 many old mines, that were reputed to be worked out, but had 

 been abandoned for want of this discretion. No mine can be said 

 to be in a safe state where there are no reserves, as fresh deposits 



N.S. \'ol.G. \o. r55. Xov. 182f(. 3 J) of 



