THE PROSPECTORS HANDBOOK. 



poorer in quality. It is well to recollect that a true mineral 

 vein, where it exists, is not likely to be isolated ; it rather 

 represents, in a poorer or richer degree, many more within 

 reach, and which constitute a " mineral belt." For this 

 reason, the explorer should not set his affections too much 

 on any one " claim " until he has to his own satisfaction, if 

 means and time allow, considered the whole district with its 

 numerous lodes as a mineral-bearing one. 



In the search for mineral veins, the prospector should 

 study the general geological features of the country, the 

 sections of road cuttings, landslips, precipitous cliffs, the 

 sides of valleys, the sections of banks exposed to view 

 (by the action of water or other denuding agency), river- 

 beds, dry channels and gorges. If he find " likely " stones 

 in a creek or valley, he should travel up it until he notices 

 that similarly constituted stones cease to be seen, and then 

 start up the hill-side to discover the parent rock from 

 which they became detached. Very frequently, while at 

 the base of a hill or mountain, there is a deposit in the 

 form of soil washed down from the more elevated ground, 

 higher up there is " drift " in the form of boulders and 

 detritus, intervening between the surface and the original 

 bed-rock, and thus obscuring the solid rock formation from 

 view. 



However, by taking note of the various undulations and 

 avoiding such places where common sense suggests that 

 " drift " would naturally accumulate, the prospector may 

 come across "outcrops," especially in the steep sides of 

 gulleys and backbones of ridges ; and, failing this, he may, 

 by travelling towards the summit of any range of hills, be 

 sure, as he approaches the top, to find less " drift " to thwart 

 his investigations. At the same time, though he ought not 

 to be too eager to commence work with his prospecting 

 pick in "drift" of great thickness say ten or twenty feet 

 he must, for all that, carefully notice the various "float" 

 stones on the surface of the hill-sides, as by doing so he 

 can often trace the rim of a particular lode hidden from 

 view, and, if no " outcrop " of the same kind of rock has 

 attracted his attention by leaving traces in the form of 

 detached pieces scattered about the slopes according to the 



