204 Tlie Auicric<ni Geologist. September, 1895 
(tf Congress in providing in llie last Sundry- Civil bill that tlu- 
appropriations for the Survey for the fiscal year 1895-1896 
should become available before the first of July. The different 
directions in which work is progressing and the work of the 
various geologists is given in some detail. 
Dk. M. E. Wadsworth, director of the Michigan Mining 
School, delivered an address before the graduating class of 
the L'Anse (Mich.) high school this summer. He makes a 
plea for mining engineering as the best field for many a young 
man to enter. We quote the most interesting and important 
part of the address : 
The engineering iines offer opportunities for as high an education and 
the exercise of as great ability as any other profession, while the re- 
wards are often great. ***** In my judgment mining engi- 
neering now offers one of the best fields for any industrially inclined 
young man. The reason for this is the especially broad and varied 
training a man obtains in his preparation for this profession. The object 
of the training is to teach a man to aid in the development of the min- . 
eral wealth of the country. In doing this the student is instructed how- 
to explore the field and forest, to know the valuable and useful minerals 
and rocks and to distinguish them from those that are not useful, to 
understand the geological principles that govern the formation and as- 
sociation of all viseful mineral deposits and to he able to approximately 
estimate their value: to survey and lay out the faroperty for opening, 
and to map it accurately, to design or select the hoisting, transporta- 
tion, power and light plants: to design and erect the mills, furnaces, 
docks, dams, etc.: tosvu-vey, lay out and plot the town, roads, railroads, 
tramways, etc.: to understand the methods of mining or quarrying the 
deposit, of timbering and ventilating the mine; assaying the ores: to un- 
derstand the strength and properties of construction materials, the im- 
proved methods of generating and using steam, the care of boilers, en- 
gines and pumps, how to test them and determine their efficiency: make 
repairs, handle machine and other tools: to know the principles of elec- 
tricity, its generation, storage, transmission and use, and to design and 
lay out plans suitable for its use in lighting, haulage, etc.: to under- 
stand hydraulic mining, the use and transmission of water power; the 
flow of water through pipes, ditches, etc.: and the various problems of 
water supply, drainage, sewage, etc.; to intelligently select the methods, 
of handling any ore, to dress and concentrate it, to understand its con- 
stitution, and to choose the metallurgical processes by which it should 
l)e treated: to be conversant with the methods of keeping the accounts 
and books relating to mines, making the purchases, selling the pro- 
ducts, etc. Such a training as this makes a man not only useful about 
any part of the work in obtaining mineral products, but it makes him 
valuable in almost every walk in life. 
It is easy to see that such an edvication will make any man of reason- 
able intelligence a fair mathematician, physicist, chemist, assayer, met- 
allurgist, mineralogist, geologist, draughtsman, designer, surveyor, a 
civil, mechanical, electrical and mining engineer, woodsman, mechanic, 
millman, etc. 
Thk Octobek nu.mbeu of the Ajiekkax Geologist will con- 
tain an account of the meetings of the Geological Society of 
America and the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science at Springfield, Mass., August 27th to September 
7th. 
