314 INDUSTRIAL MUSRUMS IK THEIR 



a search ; another, who knows all the niines^of Northern Europe, has 

 sailed to Chili on a similar errand. 



I may also refer here to the volume of ' Lectures on Gold,' published 

 by the Government School of Mines in London a few years ago, as a 

 guide to the multitudes of our countrymen flocking at that time to the 

 gold fields of Australia. It illustrated the perfect possibility of equip- 

 ping travellers intellectually for the reaping of that industrial harvest 

 which awaits the sagacious in every land. Contrast with this the 

 vast amount of time, labour, money, and energy, which have been 

 wasted in vain attempts to discover by chance, or through glimpses of 

 half-knowledge, the riches of unknown regions. Eags of iron pyrites 

 have been sent home as gold-dust ; lumps of red oxide of iron, as the 

 cinnabar ore of quicksilver ; pieces of flattened lead-shot, as grains of 

 platina. Men have exchanged abroad heavy gold-dust for light dia- 

 monds, alas ! too light ! for they proved, on reaching home, to be quartz 

 crystals ; and single-witted knaves have felt so confident of the general 

 ignorance, that sham nuggets, manufactured in Birmingham, have been 

 sent out to the gold diggings, where they were scattered on Sunday 

 mornings over exhausted mines about to be offered up for sale : entry 

 immediate. 



Let any one, indeed, take a map, and mark upon it all of Europe, 

 Asia, Africa, and America, which is still unexplored, and after reflect- 

 ing upon the immensity of the area thus brought into view, ask himself 

 how its material riches are to be ascertained, and he will not, I imagine, 

 propose to leave them to be stumbled on by such chance visitors as may 

 wander aimlessly and ignorantly through that region. 



I have spoken specially of distant lands, but he who does not know 

 valuable objects at a distance, will as little recognise them at his own 

 door ; nor need I remind you that around and between the two chief 

 cities of Scotland, lie beds of iron-ore, building-stone, and gas-fuels, 

 besides other minerals whose existence and value have been fully recog- 

 nised only within the memory of living men, and these in most cases 

 not past their prime. 



One great service, then, which an industrial museum may render to 

 commercial enterprise, is the teaching of those about to be scattered over 

 the world, how to recognise the important raw, working, and modifying 

 materials of industrial art. Scotland has always, in virtue of being 

 u Caledonia stern and wild," kept her poets who could live on a little 

 oatmeal at home, and sent her hungry practical men abroad. At the pre- 

 sent day, more than of old, from the bosom of almost every family, one 

 or more sons are sent forth over land and sea. Surely, then, we should 

 give them opportunity before they part from us, to make themselves 

 familiar with the typical industrial materials of all countries, and after 

 singing " Auld Lang Syne " for the last time with them, and before bid- 

 ding them farewell, should place in their chests, beside the Bible and 

 the volume of national songs, some brief treatise which might help them 



