GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON 



where experience has recorded many valuable data, 

 where the lode to be inspected may be com- 

 pared with those which are flourishing and with 

 those which have failed, where operations may 

 be commenced with a cautious step, where the 

 windlass may be succeeded by the whims, and the 

 whims by the steam-engine, how much more diffi- 

 cult is the task when the lode is in a foreign coun- 

 try, destitute of resources, experience, and popu- 

 lation, and when as a stranger one is led over a 

 series of wild, barren mountains, to a desert spot, at 

 once to determine whether the mine is to be ac- 

 cepted or not. As this has been my situation, I 

 will enture to make a few imperfect observations 

 on the subject. 



The first object which draws the attention to a 

 lode (which is a ramified crack or fissure in which 

 ores with other substances are embedded), is its 

 positive value or contents, and this value has lately 

 been estimated in England merely from the inspec- 

 tion and assay of a piece of the ore ; but of course 

 this judgment is altogether erroneous, for a large 

 lode of a moderate assay may be more valuable 

 than a small lode of rich ores or assay, and an 



