10 
a given formation was to be found, mineralogical observation to 
discover the actual deposit, and chemical analysis to determine 
the value of the ore. 
The mining districts of Great Britain are so utterly destitute 
of the means of mineralogical education, whether in schools or 
suitable collections, that it need be no source of wonder to find 
the most intelligent miner acquainted only with some two or 
three of the substances, which in the routine of his employment 
have been brought prominently before him, and often neglecting 
others from ignorance of their nature, or dangerously confound- 
ing things which are totally distinct from each other. It is 
matter of history that the copper ores of Cornwall were recog- 
nised as useful only at a comparatively late date, the miners 
having concentrated all their attention upon the tin with which 
that county was so plentifully supplied. More wonderful does 
it appear, that even at the commencement of the last century, 
when the yellow ore or pyrites had been long appreciated, the 
far more valuable redruthite, or sulphide of copper, was thrown 
as worthless rubbish over the cliffs of St. Just into the Atlantic; 
and Pryce informs us, that “ many thousand pounds worth of the 
rich black ore, or oxide of copper, was washed into the rivers 
and discharged into the North Sea from the old Pool mine.”* 
These might be considered as the errors of a past age, but we 
may recollect that they occurred at a time when the value of the 
same substances was understood in other countries ; and by 
mere accidental rencontres similar cases are still not unfrequently 
brought to our notice. 
During a visit, three or four years since, to a mine which was 
supported chiefly by raising blende, the sulphide of zinc, my 
attention was attracted by a lump of white mineral lying on the 
window-sill of the office, a single glance at which was sufficient 
for recognition ; and I put to the agent a few questions regard- 
ing its nature and occurrence. He replied that it was nothing 
but “ spar ”, and that in working a particular part of the lode 
they had met with many tons of it, which, however, had been 
all, except this accidentally preserved specimen, irretrievably 
mixed with the rubbish heaps. The surprise of my informant 
* Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis, 1778. 
