NATURAL HISTORY. 
89 
IV. Geology AND Mineralogy. Another branch 
of Natural History to which your attention will be 
called by our Society is Geology and Mineralogy. 
It is astonishing that in a county, rich in mineral 
productions, which have been one great source of the 
wealth of it, so little care should have been taken 
to establish anything like an exact knowledge of its 
geology and mineralogy. To the neglect, indeed, 
of this knowledge may be traced the lavish expendi- 
ture of money in many fruitless speculations. How 
many persons have lost their property in search after 
coal, in situations where the slightest regard to the 
principles that have been established, and the rules 
that have been discovered, relative to the association 
of coal with certain stratified rocks, would have 
saved those individuals from ruin and misery. 
It is, indeed, but a few years ago, so complete was 
the ignorance of persons upon these subjects, that a 
shaft was sunk to raise gold^ from the hills of Malvern, 
and the individuals concerned lost a large property in 
the speculation. Setting aside, then, all considera- 
tions of the suitableness of such pursuits to our 
^ The spot where these mining transactions were carried on is still called " the 
gold mine" by the country people ; but whether in reality the projectors of this 
scheme thought that gold could be found there, or were merely in search of copper 
or tin ore, traces of which it is said they discovered, certain it is that after carrying 
on their operations for some years to no good purpose, the scheme was abandoned. 
Geology not being well understood in those days, it is probable that the splendid 
lustre of the micaceous rock which abounds at this point, misled them as to its 
metallic composition. A similar instance of mineralogical ignorance is mentioned 
by the Rev. Thomas Pearson, in an elaborate paper on the structure of the Abberley 
Hills, contributed by him to our Society, where he states that two Scotchmen 
ruined themselves in attempting to manufacture iron frpm the basalt of those hiils. 
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