784 Museum, of Economic Geology j^No. 118. 



to the mineral products of the North-Western Provinces would be 

 of the highest order ; and the field is so novel and extensive, that we 

 could scarcely fail to develop information at once valuable and inter- 

 esting. 



6. From the experience already obtained in the prosecution of min- 

 ing operations in this country, it appears that one 



Means ofillustra- * ^ J > fif 



ting processes of Me- main obstacle to their success has arisen from de- 



tallurgy and practi- -. . , 



cal details ot Coal fective knowledge of me practical and working de- 

 "^^'^^* tails of such operations. In the arrangements of the 



practical department of the Museum, our efforts ought accordingly 

 to be directed to the removal of this deficiency, and measures ought 

 to be adopted for procuring, from the best sources, the means of 

 illustration required. Primarily, in the case of metallic minerals, 

 specimens of the ores of each metal, in the different stages of their 

 progress, from their original extraction from the matrix to their 

 production in a state fit for commercial or general purposes, ought to 

 be procured, and arranged systematically with every reference to in- 

 struction. For the illustration of each process, wherein apparatus or 

 machinery is employed, models of these ought, whenever practicable 

 to be procured, and on such a scale, as to admit of the exhibition of 

 details of construction. Farther, similar models exhibiting the under- 

 ground arrangements of the mine, the means of ventilation, whether 

 by shafts or machines, of keeping the mines free from water, of con- 

 veying and raising to the surface the rough material, and generally such 

 other practical details as it may be possible to represent in this manner, 

 would prove most useful. It would, I conceive, be perfectly practica- 

 ble for a person familiar with the subject, and with modelling, to 

 represent in a single model, the entire series of details now adverted to, 

 and although such a model might prove expensive, yet since the 

 information to be derived from it, would be in every respect of more 

 practical benefit than that afforded by drawings, or oral or written des- 

 criptions, I do not think a complete Museum of Economic Geology 

 ought to be without something of the kind. Models of the most ap. 

 proved forms of miner's tools would also be most useful ; and since 

 blasting with gunpowder is constantly had recourse to in all extensive 

 mining operations, the series of tools necessary for that purpose may 

 be annexed. Arrangements of a nature similar to those just detailed, 



