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 metalUferous mines and coUieries, there should 
be no national school or college of mines, though 
* Prof. L. C. Beck's " Report," &c., 1837. 
