370 



MINING. 



sive hope of reaping a rich reward, attest the zeal 

 for mineral explorations, and the want of that prac- 

 tical and theoretical knowledge which are necessa- 

 ry for the successful prosecution of mining enter- 

 prises.."* 



We have given so full a description of the coal 

 measures, that the reader can form a very good es- 

 timate of the probability of discovering this mineral 

 in any given locality. He will perceive the utter 

 folly of seeking for it in the argillaceous slate for- 

 mation, although highly impregnated with carbon, as 

 at Poughkeepsie and its vicinity, where much money 

 has been expended in such explorations. We know 

 of many instances where individuals have expended 

 their whole fortunes in digging for coal, when the 

 only signs of it were a few pieces of black schorl, 

 contained in primitive rocks. We have observed 

 deep pits and excavations in various parts of the 

 country, made in search of silver and gold, when the 

 only indications were spangles of white isinglass, or 

 talc, or iron pyrites, the nature of which a candle 

 and blowpipe would speedily have revealed. We 

 have already stated that the coal measures do not 

 exist in the State of New- York, unless there have 

 been enormous dislocations, throwing our strata 

 some thousands of feet below those, of Pennsylva- 

 nia and the Ohio Valley ; and though geology teaches 

 that metals and coal are not exclusively confined to 

 certain geological epochs, as was once supposed* 

 yet it also teaches that good bituminous coal, fit to 

 be worked extensively for profitable purposes, does 

 not occur out of the carboniferous group. 



The following remarks of Mr. De la Beche are 

 particularly applicable to this country : " We may 

 here notice the singular circumstance, that, in this 

 country (England), where so much capital is invest- 

 ed in metalliferous mines and collieries, there should 

 be no national school or college of mines, though 



* Prof. L. C. Beck's "Report," &c, 1837. 



