122 Chronicles of Science. [Jan., 



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well qualified to write on this subject as the author of this paper, 

 who has spent most of his life in the thorough investigation of the 

 Crag deposits ; his inferences are therefore entitled to more than 

 ordinary consideration. 



Within the last few months, Geology has suffered from the loss 

 of several of her followers ; amongst them Mr. C. Maclaren, author 

 of ' The Geology of Fife and the Lothians,' and Mr. Alexander 

 Bryson, were men of local eminence. Don Casiano di Prado was 

 the leading geologist of Spain, where his death will be severely felt 

 by his small band of associates ; and M. Louis Saemann, who was 

 at the same time an accomplished mineralogist and a liberal-minded 

 dealer in minerals and fossils, will be regretted by a large circle 

 of friends and customers ; for he was the most enlightened, most 

 liberal, and most enterprising of all dealers; and by his death 

 Geology has therefore sustained a severe blow of a most peculiar 

 nature. But however much we may regret these losses, they are 

 trifles compared with that caused by the death of Mr. William 

 Hopkins, of Cambridge, for by this sad event it seems as if our 

 science were deprived of a limb, this distinguished man being the 

 founder and only master of what may be termed Mathematical 

 Geology. 



10. MINING. 



At the time when there is something more than indications that 

 the Cornish copper mines are giving symptoms of exhaustion, we 

 hear of the extraordinary development of copper mines in California. 

 Fifteen counties, from San Diego to Del Norte, possess veins of 

 copper, which will give, it is said, at least 10 per cent, of metal. 

 The cost of transit so largely interferes with the development of 

 those mines, that those only which are at a short distance from San 

 Francisco are worked. Amongst those the Union Mine at Cop- 

 peropolis has lately exported 110 tons of ore a-day, of which 50 tons 

 contained 20 per cent, of metal. Notwithstanding the value of this 

 ore, the cost of carriage absorbed nearly all the profit. Attempts 

 have been made — and considerable success has attended them — to 

 smelt the ores near the place of production, and we are told that 

 cakes of copper containing from 90 to 95 per cent, of copper are 

 obtained. Allowing for some exaggeration, there appears to be no 

 doubt that immense deposits of copper exist in California, and that 

 in a few years, when roads have been constructed, these will be 

 extensively and profitably worked. 



After the remarks which we made in our last, on the depressed 

 state of mining in the British Isles, the above does not encourage 

 the hope of any great improvement in the condition of our copper 



