39° Progress in Science. [July, 



the metallurgical treatment to which the Comstock ores are subjected. The 

 mines of Central and Eastern Nevada, and of Colorado, also receive ample 

 notice. 



During the last few years the great development of the steel trade, due to 

 Mr. Bessemer's improvements, has led to the extensive working of our depo- 

 sits of red haematite, an ore which by its freedom from phosphorus yields an 

 iron well adapted for conversion into Bessemer steel. Our deposits of this 

 ore are, however, extremely limited, being confined chiefly to the mines in the 

 carboniferous limestone of the neighbourhood of Ulverstone, in Lancashire, 

 and Whitehaven, in Cumberland ; and hence apprehension has not unnatu- 

 rally been entertained that these workings may soon become insufficient to 

 meet the ever-growing demand for haematite. Accordingly the Iron and Steel 

 Institute, some time ago, appointed a committee to report on the distribution 

 of our iron ores, with special reference to deposits of haematite, and at a recent 

 meeting of the Institute this committee presented its preliminary report. It 

 appears that an application was made by the Secretary to the Director-General 

 of the Geological Survey, requesting that the officers serving under him should 

 be instructed to report upon this subject. Whilst we feel assured that the 

 Survey has ever been willing to further the mining interests of the country, it is 

 obvious that the progress of a great national work of this kind can be interfered 

 with only under very special circumstances. Hence we are hardly surprised 

 that the Director-General does not feel justified in immediately acquiescing in 

 the scheme of the Institute, although willing to do so at the earliest oppor- 

 tunity. A slight misunderstanding, however, appears to have been entertained 

 on this subject, which elicited some explanatory remarks from Mr. Robert 

 Hunt. 



Those who are interested in the promotion of mining education in this 

 country will have learnt with surprise that the Royal Commission on Science 

 has suggested in its Preliminary Report, that the Royal School of Mines and 

 Mining Record Office shall be separated from the Museum of Practical 

 Geology, and that the School be removed to South Kensington. However 

 ardently we may desire to see the establishment of a grand central College of 

 Science comparable with some of the continental institutions, the policy of the 

 proposed step with reference to the Mining School may be fairly questioned. 

 Such technical subjects as mining and metallurgy should obviously be taught 

 in an institution where the student may readily gain access to good collec- 

 tions of minerals, metallurgical products, and mining models. Nowhere can 

 these conditions be better fulfilled than in Jermyn Street, where for the last 

 twenty years valuable collections have been gradually accumulating. Indeed, 

 it is certain that many of the objects — such as the grand series of vein-stones — 

 could not possibly be obtained in duplicate for Kensington. Nor must we 

 ignore the convenience to the public arising from the concentration of the 

 Mining School, the Geological Museum, the Mining Record Office, and the 

 head-quarters of the Geological Survey under the same roof. 



Three valuable memoirs on mining subjects, by Mr. W. Jory Henwood, of 

 Penzance, form the eighth volume of the " Transactions of the Geological 

 Society of Cornwall," recently published — a volume which is divided into two 

 parts, each forming a stout octavo. Mr. Henwood's first memoir occupies 

 between 700 and 800 pages, and describes in detail more than 130 mines in India, 

 Chili, Brazil, North America, Jamaica, Spain, France, the Channel Islands, 

 and Great Britain and Ireland. These lengthy '-' Observations on Metalliferous 

 Deposits" are followed by two shorter papers — one giving the result of 

 certain " Observations on Subterranean Temperature," and the other " On the 

 Change of Temperature which takes place, at the same and. at different times, 

 on the Surface and at Depths of Three, Six, and Nine feet in the Canga at Agoa 

 Quente, in Brazil." The present volume is a befitting companion to the fifth 

 volume of the same series, which is devoted to Mr. Henwood's celebrated 

 " Memoir on the Metalliferous Deposits in the West of England." 



We have before us the last Report of "The Miners' Association of Cornwall 

 and Devonshire," which shows what useful but unpretending work the associ- 





