16 
endeavour to make the student familiar with the chief phases of 
the operations practised in various regions, and under different 
conditions. He will have, each year, the opportunity of closely 
inspecting the mineral features and particular mining processes of 
the districts under examination by the Geological Survey ; and, 
when furnished with this preliminary knowledge, will, I doubt 
not, pass to his sphere of probation better qualified to observe 
and to compare ; whilst the practical experience which he must 
afterwards acquire will be superadded to what he has already 
benefited from the labours of others. 
Before we proceed to examine farther into the general ques- 
tion of the importance of endeavouring to establish in Britain 
a system of technical education for this department, let us con- 
sider the definition and principal heads of the subject before us ; 
and, whilst so engaged, let us take an instance from each division, 
illustrative of the gain to be derived from an extended acquaint- 
ance with the modes of treating it. 
The art of mining comprehends all the processes whereby the 
useful minerals are obtained from their natural localities beneath 
the surface of the earth, and the subsequent operations by which 
many of them must be prepared for the purposes of the metal- 
lurgist. 
In the first place, among these processes must be mentioned, 
the search for localities in which we may reasonably hope to 
meet with the minerals occurring either in beds or lodes. It is 
obvious that a combination of geological and mineralogical 
knowledge is requisite for success, and that a mere empirical 
tact obtained in a given district may lead to fatal mistakes in 
another. Amid the phenomena of the lodes, their frequent 
heaves and dislocations, and their different appearance when 
bounded by different rocks, call for close attention ; and although 
from lack of sufficient and well recorded observation, the princi- 
ples upon which a criterion should be founded are far from 
fixed, we often find that a superior degree of general experience 
has been rewarded by success, when mere unintelligent working 
had been completely foiled. 
Among the methods of proving the existence of useful de- 
posits, none has yielded greater results, or is more capable of 
