Sir Clement Le Neve Foster. 373 



and Devon, the forerunner of the Mining School of Camborne. He 

 also acted as Secretary to the Koyal Cornwall Polytechnic Society. 

 His interest in mineralogical and mining studies at this period is indi- 

 cated by papers published by him in the " Geological Magazine " for 

 1866 upon a curious mineral vein at Eoscwarne Mine, Cornwall, and 

 upon the occurrence of molybdenite and linarite in Leicestershire and 

 Cornwall respectively. .*, 



Early in 1868 Le Neve Foster joined an exploring expedition sent 

 by the Khedive of Egypt to examine the mineral resources of the 

 Sinaitic peninsula, and a joint memoir with Mr. H. Bauerman on the 

 occurrence of celestine in the nummulitic limestone was one of the 

 fruits of the expedition. In the summer of the same year he proceeded 

 to Venezuela to report upon the Caratal goldfield, and the results of 

 his study were communicated to both English and foreign scientific 

 journals. His appointment in the following year as Engineer to the 

 Pestarena Gold Mining Company led to a residence of three years in 

 the Val Anzasca, Northern Italy, and to the publication of a memoir 

 upon the amalgamation of gold ores in Italy, which appeared in various 

 technical journals. 



In 1873, Le Neve Foster returned to Cornwall as an Inspector of 

 Mines under the Home Office, being called upon to administer the 

 Metalliferous Mines Eegulation Act, which had recently been passed. 

 The stringency with which he carried out the provisions of the Act met 

 with much adverse criticism, and for a time he had to encounter some 

 unpopularity and opposition. The best defence of his action is, how- 

 ever, found in the circumstance that the average death rate from mine 

 accidents was reduced from 2 per 1,000 during the first three years of 

 his inspectorship to 1*3 per 1,000 during the last five years. While in 

 Cornwall, he resumed his activity in connection with the educational 

 work among the mining population, and contributed papers on geology 

 and mineralogy to the journals of local societies. On the foundation, 

 of the Mineralogical Society, in 1876, Le Neve Foster, who had always 

 taken the warmest interest in the study, became an original member 

 and joined the Council, being elected the first Foreign Secretary of the 

 Society. He contributed to the first volume of the "Mineralogical 

 Magazine " four papers two on new minerals and mineral localities in 

 Cornwall and Devon, and two dealing with methods of blowpipe 

 analysis, a subject in which he always took the keenest interest, and 

 in which he was a recognised expert. At this same period he con- 

 tributed to the " Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society " very 

 valuable memoirs on the Hay tor iron mine, on some stock works in 

 Cornwall, on the great flat lode south of Kedruth and Camborne, and 

 on some other tin deposits formed by the alteration of granite. All of 

 these memoirs were characterised by that combination of profound and 



