August 8, 1907] 



A' A TURE 



The blacU-band ironstone and the clay iron ores of the 

 toalfii-'lds, whicli gave the British iron industry its early 

 supremacy, now yield but a small proportion of the ores 

 smelted in our furnaces. The Mesozoic beds of the English 

 Midla/ ds and of Yorkshire still supply large quantities 

 cf ore. Nevertheless the British iron industry is becoming 

 increasingly dependent on foreign ores. So it would be 

 pleasant to find that the Scandinavian iron mines are not 

 subject to the usual limits in depth. I fear the typical 

 iron deposits of Middle Sweden and of Gollivara will 

 follow the general rule ; but Kiruna may be an excep- 

 tion, and its ores may continue far downward along the 

 surface of its sheet of porphyrite. The uncertainty in this 

 case lies in the extent ot the subsequent enrichment and 

 enlargement of the bed ,■ if most of the ore is due to 

 secondary deposition, then it may be restricted to the 

 comparatively shallow depths at which this process can 

 act ; and though that limit will be of no practical effect 

 for a century or more to come, the ore deposit may be 

 shallow as compared with gold mines. 



The geological evidence may convince us that all the 

 economically important iron ores are limited to shallower 

 depths than lodes of gold, copper, and tin ; but this con- 

 clusion shall not enroll me among the pessimists as to 

 the future of the iron supply. Twenty years ago a paper 

 on the gold supplies of the world was read to the Associ- 

 ation at the request of the .Section of Economics. About 

 the time that the report was issued, there were sixty-eight 

 mining companies with a nominal capital of 73,000,000/. 

 at work upon the Rand. Nevertheless, the author, accept- 

 ing the view that " the future of South African gold- 

 mining depends upon quartz veins," concluded: "There 

 is as yet no evidence that the yield will be sufficient in 

 amount to materially influence the world's production. 

 As regards India, the prospect is still less hopeful." 



That quotation may be excused, as it is not only a 

 warning of the danger of negative predictions, but of the 

 unfortunate consequences that happen when geologists are 

 unduly influenced in geological questions by the opinions 

 of those who are not geologists. In economic Geology, 

 as in theoretical Geology, we should have greater con- 

 fidence in the value of geological evidence. Negative pre- 

 dictions are especially rash in regard to iron, it being the 

 most abundant and widely distributed of all the metals. 

 The geologist who knows the amount of iron in most 

 basic rocks finds it difhcult to realise the possibility of 

 an iron famine ; he can hardly picture to himself some 

 future ironmaster complaining of " iron, iron everywhere, 

 and not a ton to smelt." There are reserves of low grade 

 and refractory materials which the fastidious ironmaster 

 cannot now use, since competition restricts him to ores of 

 exceptional richness and purity. When the latter fail, an 

 imlimited quantity could be made available by concentra- 

 tion processes. The vast quantities of iron ores suitable 

 for present methods of smelting in .'\ustralla, Africa, and 

 India show that the practical question is that of supplies 

 to existing iron-working localities, and not of the universal 

 failure of iron ores. 



VI. Mining Geology and Education. 



The genesis of ores and the extent of future ore supplies 

 are intimately connected questions, and the recognition of 

 this fact has led to the remarkable growth of interest in 

 economic Geology. This wider appreciation of the prac- 

 tical value of academic Geology should, I venture to urge, 

 he recognised among teachers by giving a more honoured 

 place to economic Geology. 



It was inevitable that until the principles of Geology 

 had been firmly established, the detailed study of their 

 application should have been postponed. Now, however, 

 last century's work on academic Geology enables the 

 difficult problems connected with the genesis of metal- 

 liferous ores to be investigated with illuminating and 

 practically useful results. 



British interest in min,ing education has therefore been 

 revived. Its history has been sadly fitful. Lyell," in 1832, 

 deplored the superiority of the Continent in this respect, 

 as " the art of mining has long been taught in France, 

 Germany, and Hungary in scientific institutions established 

 for that purpose," whereas, he continues (quoting from 

 1 C. Lyell, " Principles of Gcoloey," vol. i., ed. 2 (1832), p. 63. 



NO. 1 97 1, VOL. 76] 



the prospectus of a School of Mines in Cornwall, issued 

 in 1825), " our miners have been left to themselves, 

 almost without the assistance of scientific works in the 

 English language, and without any 'School of Mines,' 

 to blunder their own way into a certain degree of prac- 

 tical skill. The inconvenience of this want of system in 

 a country where so much capital is expended, and often 

 wasted, in mining adventures, has been well exposed by 

 an eminent practical miner." 



Though the chief British School of Mines made a late 

 start, the brilliant originality of its professors soon carried 

 it into the front rank ; but in an evil day for the Mining 

 School it was united with a Normal School for the Train- 

 ing of Teachers, now the Royal College of Science, and 

 that school by its great success overwhelmed its older 

 ally. Those interested in economic Geology therefore 

 welcome the recent decision to separate the technical 

 from the educational and other courses, while leaving the 

 Schools of Mines and Science sufficiently connected for 

 successful cooperation. This policy should give such 

 opportunities for the teaching of mining research that we 

 may not always have to confess, as at present, that British 

 contributions to mining Geology do not rank as high as 

 those made to other branches of our science. 



Regrets are sometimes expressed, and perhaps still more 

 often felt, at the tendency in scientific teaching to become 

 more technical; but I, for one, do not fear evil from any 

 such change. It is possible that the educational conflict 

 of the future will be between academic science and 

 technical science, on grounds in some respects analogous 

 to those between classics and science during the last 

 century. The advocates of the educational value of 

 technical science are not inspired by mere impatience with 

 the apparently useless, for they accept the principle that 

 the essence of education is method, not matter. There- 

 fore they claim that the methods and principles of science 

 can be better taught by subjects which are being used 

 on a large scale in modern industries than by subjects of 

 which the interest is still purely theoretical. Those who 

 fear that academic science will be neglected if technical 

 science be used in education may be encouraged by the 

 brilliant revival of classical research since classics lost its 

 educational monopoly. .Academic science is even less 

 likely to be neglected. It will always nave its fascin- 

 ation for those intellectual hermits — shall I not say those 

 saints of science? — who prefer to work for love of know- 

 ledge, free from the worrying intrusion of the mixed 

 problems and fickle conditions of the industrial world ; 

 and the greater the progress of applied science the more 

 urgent will be its demands for help from pure science, 

 and, as a necessary consequence, the wider will be the 

 appreciation and the more generous the endowment of 

 scientific research. 



Technical education must be as rigorous as that in 

 academic education, and its connection with the funda- 

 mental principles must be as intimate. When so taught, 

 economic problems provide at least as good a mental train- 

 ing as those branches of science which are purely theo- 

 retical. If the new Imperial College of Science and 

 Technology carry on the mission for which the Geological 

 Society was founded a century ago, if it inspire its 

 students to have their delight in using past discoveries 

 on the open surface of the earth, so that they may pene- 

 trate to what is within, then they will gain that sure 

 knowledge of the formation and distribution of ores, which 

 is of ever-growing national importance. 



SECTION E. 



GEOGRAPHY. 



Opening Address bv George G. Chisholm, M.A., B.Sc, 

 President of the Section. 



Geography and Commerce. 

 The subject which I have chosen for this Address is 

 one that is very apt to raise questions that might lead 

 to keen and even warm controversy. For the raising of 

 such questions no occasion could be less suitable, and it 

 will therefore be my endeavour to handle the subject in 

 such a manner that burning questions may be altogether 

 avoided. For that reason I propose to consider the rela- 



