ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 329 



PART II. 



ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 



The practical man desires a knowledge of the useful minerals and other 

 natural resources, and he, therefore, often fails to appreciate the necessity for 

 such determinations as have been laboriously worked out for the first part of 

 this Report. But experience has clearly shown that haphazard methods of 

 development are not only ruinous to individuals and corporations engaged in 

 mining, but also detrimental to the legitimate industrial growth of any region. 

 Little as it may be realized by those who have suffered from ill-advised spec- 

 ulation in mining property, and undesirable as the revelation may be to those 

 who live by preying upon the credulity of investors, it is certainly true that 

 there are no isolated cases of marvelous subterranean wealth. If a bonanza 

 in gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, or manganese exists anywhere in Central 

 Texas, it is because certain causes have acted to produce it; and if one such 

 occurrence be known, others of the same kind probably exist in the same 

 region. Still, it does not follow that the discovery by accident of one ore 

 body necessitates a similar method for acquiring knowledge of others. Noth- 

 ing is now more firmly established than the close relations of geologic structure 

 and mineral deposition. Every competent mining engineer is a structural 

 geologist, or he is wofully unfitted for his profession, however well trained 

 he may be in other very necessary directions. The really practical miner is 

 often the best judge of the proper means of attacking a special problem in 

 excavation, provided that it requires no knowledge beyond the range of his 

 own experience. But whenever any person, of whatever training and expe- 

 rience, assumes to pass an opinion upon values after simple inspection, without 

 such knowledge of the structure and of the chemical composition as can come 

 only from varied experience and thorough tests, he is arrogating to himself 

 powers beyond the capacity of any human being. 



No industry can be built upon such a foundation. Whatever may be the 

 future of our district, its development will depend upon its resources as they 

 are, not as they are estimated by any individual, although correct statements 

 of fact will aid materially in attracting attention from capitalists. Unfounded 

 hopes and guesses of inexperienced persons, if converted into cash, may pro- 

 duce a temporary artificial excitement, which will certainly result in eventual 

 disaster. The money which has already been honestly expended in the Cen- 

 tral Mineral Region by well-meaning enthusiasts, often without competent ad- 

 vice, would have sufficed to determine the value of the resources of the tract 



