NA TURE 



145 



THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 1894. 





MINING BOOKS. 



Economic Geology of the United States, -with briefer 

 mention of Foreign Miiieral Products. By Ralph 

 S. Tarr, B.S., F.G.S. A., Assistant Professor of Geo- 

 logy at Cornell University. (London: Macmillan and 

 Co., 1894.) 

 The Ore Deposits of the United States. By James F. 

 Kemp, A.B., E.M., Professor of Geology in the School 

 of Mines, Columbia College. (New York : Scientific 

 Publishing Company, 1893) 

 Mining; an Elementary Treatise on the Getting of 

 Minerals. By Arnold Lupton, M.I.C.E., F.G.S., &c. 

 (London: Longmans, 1893.) 

 The Miner's Handbook. Compiled by John Milne, 

 F.R.S., Professor of Mining in the Imperial Univer- 

 sity of Japan. (London: Lockwood, 1893.) 

 THE mining student of to-day has no reason to 

 complain that his interests are being neglected, 

 for text-books relating to his art are being showered 

 upon him. Prof. Tarr states in his preface that there 

 is no recent text-book on economic geology of any value. 

 Surely the well-known library of his University must 

 possess the big treatise of Fuchs and De Launay, pub- 

 lished last year. The first part of Prof. Tarr's work, 

 which deals with the mineralogical aspect of the ques- 

 tion, might well have been omitted, for the student gains 

 nothing in the end by being taught mineralogy in a 

 loose and vague fashion. Objection must be taken to 

 the word " mineralizer," which is used throughout the 

 book to denote a non-metallic element, such as sulphur 

 or chlorine, combined with a metal. In mining and 

 metallurgy the author perpetrates a series of blunders, for 

 which even junior students would be upbraided by an 

 examiner. In speaking of the extraction of metals, he 

 says there are three methods of treating ores : " Amal- 

 gamation, smelting (the dry way), and metallurgy (the 

 wet way)." A treatise upon metallurgy would be strangely 

 imperfect if Prof. Tarr's definition of the term were 

 adopted. On the next page is the remarkable state- 

 ment : " Before smelting some ores it is necessary 

 to either calcine them — that is, to allow them to decom- 

 pose in the air at ordinary temperatures — or to roast 

 them." A moment's reflection upon the derivation of the 

 word "calcine" would have prevented the mistake. It 

 is evident that the author has not even turned over the 

 pages of " De re Metallic:!," for otherwise we should not 

 have the curious piece of historical information : " During 

 the reign of Agricola, Portugal produced stream tin." 

 Though sadly marred by careless writing of this descrip- 

 tion, the book contains much useful information comi)iled 

 from various sources ; but it is singularly deficient in 

 figures. 



Prof. Kemp in his introduction gives a valuable 

 rA««;<' of various schemes for classifying ore-deposits, a 

 subject upon which there is much difference of opinion, 

 for mining geologists are not yet agreed whether the 

 basis of the classification should be form or origin. The 

 author casts his vote in favour of the latter, and brings 

 NO. 1285, VOL. 50] 



forward an elaborate scheme of his own, which will be of 

 service to teachers and to students in reminding them of 

 the very various causes which may have contributed to 

 the production of ore-deposits. But is it not a mistake 

 for a Professor to limit his classification to deposits 

 worked for metals ? Surely it is better to make the 

 student take a wider view of the subject, and adopt some 

 scheme which includes all kinds of mineral deposits. 

 In the second part of the work will be found concise and 

 useful descriptions of the modes of occurrence of the 

 various metallic ores, with references to numerous 

 original memoirs. The illustrations are far too few to 

 do justice to the importance of the subject, and many of 

 them are valueless. Reproductions of photographs of 

 mining buildings and mining camps serve no useful pur- 

 pose in a work of this description. There is a strange 

 lack of geological feeling in the section of the Eureka 

 Mine ; judging by the illustration, the surrounding strata 

 are horizontal, whilst Mr. Curtis' original plates show 

 that they are highly inclined. Several of the woodcuts 

 are rendered useless from the absence of any explanatory 

 legend. 



Prof Lupton has brought into comparatively small com- 

 pass the results of a long experience among mines ; but 

 it is not good taste in an author to blow his own trumpet 

 so loudly in his preface. The arrangement of the 

 book is not all that one would desire, for it shows a 

 decided want of method. Likemany of his predecessors, 

 the author devotes one of the early chapters to '• sink- 

 ing," with the result of confusing the student, who is 

 introduced suddenly to processes of excavation, support- 

 ing, winding, pumping and ventilation, all of which are 

 described at length in other parts of the book. The 

 gases found in mines are dealt with in the chapter 

 upon ventilation ; it would have been more logical to 

 have discussed the nature of the polluting agents before 

 describing the means of getting rid of them. Due im- 

 portance is very rightly given to the dangers arising 

 from coal dust ; but why separate this chapter by 200 pages 

 from the part of the book treating of accidents generally ? 

 The student will be grateful to the author for the lavish 

 manner in which he inserts woodcuts, though some are 

 far from satisfactory, and a few utterly useless. Reduction 

 by photography may be carried too far, and the figure of 

 the Rio Tinto drill is practically incomprehensible. 



In the remarks about coal-cutters the author is not up 

 to date, for he says "electrical coal-cutters have made 

 but small progress," and supposes that no Winstanley 

 machines are in use at the present time. 



Mistakes arc more frequent than they should be in the 

 case of an author who has travelled much at home and 

 abroad. It might almost be supposed that he had never 

 looked inside a smith's shop at a mine, when one reads 

 that the edge of a drill cannot be sharpened sufficiently by 

 hammering. It will be news to most miners that lead ore 

 is jigged upon a bed of felspar, and that gold quartz, 

 after a preliminary crushing, is passed through rolls 

 before going to the stamps. The description of the con- 

 centration of gold ores by endless belts is strangely con- 

 fused. The author is weak in physics, for he seems to 

 consider the density and the specific gravity of a gas to 

 be two different things. The passage of gases through 

 porous diaphragms is spoken of as " Eudiometry,'' and 



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