AXNIYEESAKY ADDEESS. 45 



under the title of " Minerals in New Caledonia," prefaced by the 

 editor of the Moniteur in this way : " M. Jules G-arnier, whose 

 name was found mixed up in a controversy between various cor- 

 respondents of the Sydney Morning Herald, translated and 

 published in the Moniteur of the 24th June last, has addressed to 

 us the following explanations, praying us to insert it." 



" Since I left New Caledonia several years ago I have not 

 ceased to keep myself up to the course of its progress. I was of 

 the srnall number of those who, from the beginning attributed a 

 veritable fertility to a good part of the soil of the Colony and 

 mineral wealth to the other part. I have also seen with pleasure 

 my convictions being realized more and more under the energy 

 and indefatigable application of those courageous colonists, with 

 the first of whom I have had the pleasure of being acquainted. 



" Too distant to reply at once in the case where my ulterior 

 studies of the country might allow me fully to do so, I would 

 certainly never have attempted it if my name had not been 

 introduced into a discussion as to the priority of the discovery of 

 minerals. 



" And first, let it not be forgotten that the true end of men of 

 my profession, i.e., of geologists, is not in particular the discovery of 

 mines, but rather to state in what points, within certain limits, 

 there is a chance of finding such or such a mineral. A geologist 

 is an isolated being, if not a rare one ; the mine-hunter may be 

 called legion. The first has but one track, the second has a 

 thousand ; the former does not neglect the most humble rock, 

 the latter only stops at scintillations, at metallic lustres, at 

 aspects of useful minerals of a special kind ; lastly, the geologist — ■ 

 may my brethren forgive me the comparison — is the indefatigable 

 pointer that shows the mine-hunter where his game is going. 



" Notwithstanding, it would appear that my writings on the 

 constitution of the soil of New Caledonia are not even read by 

 miners 5 so much the worse, for they might have discovered 

 certain indications of what has been since found by them in the 

 colony. It appears that there, as here, too often people do not 



