vi Report of the Miner alogical Survey [No. 126 '.* 



adopt, then, a new set of terms may seem like increasing the difficulty of 

 making ourselves intelligible, and wilfully adding to the confusion. But 

 amongst the old names, there are none generally received, all being origin- 

 ally imposed in an arbitrary [manner.'] But in the new terminology there 

 are legitimate grounds for selection, the names being connected with a 

 system of arrangement, which, if it be not all that could be wished, is 

 yet extremely convenient. They express in a greater or less degree, 

 the relations which these minerals have to each other ; in other words, 

 their places in the system. 



There appears also little doubt but that, eventually, this system will 

 be universally adopted, and those names supersede the present barbar- 

 ous collection, not more puzzling by their numbers, than objectionable 

 for the total want of euphony, and [/ have] given some account of 

 the mineral productions considered in an economical point of view, and 

 with reference to the question of the due development of the resources 

 of these provinces. Their value is not to be correctly estimated in 

 the present condition of the country. When an improved system of 

 government shall have had time to produce its full fruits in the in- 

 crease of the population, and the improvement of its habits, in exciting 

 a taste for the arts and conveniences of civilized life, and in effecting 

 ready modes of communication, and effectual means of transport, it will 

 be seen how many and \Jiow vast are the resources which here present] 

 themselves, which [under good] management, might be made sufficiently 

 productive to become worthy of attention to a Government disposed 

 to improve its resources and to leave no source of revenue neglected. 



11. Gold and silver have in every age been sought after with avidity 

 as the most prolific sources of national wealth. Nothing, however, can 

 be more certain, than that, in reality, they are the least productive of all 

 the several different mineral resources. The comparatively small quan- 

 tity in which these metals are found, and the greater expence in raising 

 them, satisfactorily account for this apparent paradox. In South [Ame- 

 rica this is well known to the] speculators in mines. It is there a com- 

 mon saying, that a copper mine is a fortune, a silver one scarcely pays 

 itself, but a gold mine is ruin." 



12. It is not then as considering the existence of the precious metals 

 as the most promising, or the most productive, that I would lay stress on 

 the great probability which there is of the discovery of a mine of gold 



