THE EXHIBITION OF 1862. 
51 
The objects group themselves naturally enough under several 
heads, viz. : — Mineral Surveying, Mining Operations, Mineral 
Products, and Manufactured Minerals. Let us endeavour to 
follow each, through the Exhibition, both of English and 
foreign articles. The task is not, perhaps, easy, but, for any 
useful purpose, we believe it is the only one. 
1. Mineral Surveying and Mining Operations . — The long 
array of geological maps, commencing with those of the British 
islands, and including most of the countries in which mining- 
operations of any kind are carried on, is one of the most im- 
portant mai-ks of progress in the Exhibition. In no depart- 
ment is the progress of scientific research more clearly indi- 
cated, and in none is it so manifest that the march of improve- 
ment in mining is no longer checked by those who adhere to 
the old Cornish maxim : “ Where it is, there it is.” Could one 
feel satisfied that the vast amount of work indicated on the geolo- 
gical maps exhibited is all sound and conscientious, the advance 
would, indeed, be little short of miraculous to those who re- 
member the exhibition of such maps and accompanying sections 
in 1851. Unfortunately, these maps are, many of them, only first 
approximations; and it will require more labour to correct and 
set them right than has been taken to construct them. In this 
matter, however, it is certainly true that positive error is the 
first step on the road to truth. Where there is nothing to 
find fault with, no advance is made ; but it is easy for any one 
using an imperfect map to correct it. 
Among the foreign maps, the Austrian are the most extensive 
and showy, and some of the Prussian probably the best. The 
increase in the coloured portion of the maps of the Ordnance 
Survey of the British Islands since 1851 is not large in appear- 
ance, but the advance is real, and for the most part trustworthy. 
The mining plans exhibited, and the various models of 
mining operations, do not offer anything remarkable either 
in novelty of method or illustration. Certainly, they offer 
no proof of progress ; and in this respect there has probably 
been little done within the last eleven years that had not 
been as well done previously. It is but a very short time since 
one of the most distressing accidents on record occurred in a 
coal mine, from a neglect of the very first principles of economic 
mining — that of having more than one access kept up to every 
part of a mine except the newest and most advanced headings. 
There is nothing in any of the plans exhibited that shows 
any practical advance on the old methods of winning coal or 
getting ores. 
Although, however, there is not much new matter, there 
are some admirable photographs of mining and quarrying 
operations, especially the latter — so good as to deserve the 
