46 
prospecting surrey. Government has its Geological 
Survey, its School of Mines, its Department of Science 
and Art, its British Museum; Scotland has her 
special Geological Survey, and a couple of Geological 
Societies—at Edinburgh and Glasgow respectively ; 
Edinburgh has in addition its Royal and Royal 
Physical Societies ; Perth has its Society of 
Natural Science, and every town of any size has its 
learned society of some kind ; each of the Scotch 
Universities has, moreover, its Professor of Natural 
History, a subject that embraces Mineralogy. With 
such a machinery for the di^nsion of labour in matters 
scientific—in the collection and diffusion of accurate 
datain science—it would be strange could no authority 
be found willing to contribute his time and energies 
to the development of so attractive a department of 
the natural resources of his mother-land ! ‘ ‘ Pros¬ 
pecting,’’ however, implies facility offered by the local 
landholders; but it is doubtful whether, in relation to 
Gold-discovery, it is their interest to aid in the esta¬ 
blishment of the ti'uth! There must ever, however, be 
a fear of this, that if the public take it into their head, 
whether on right grounds or wrong, or on no grounds 
at all, to “prospect” a particular locality, they may 
do so in spite of proprietors, law, or justice ; and the 
result may in such event be prejudicial to the inte¬ 
rests of the great landholders, and of society at large. 
X. Till the probable amount of gold distri¬ 
buted IN PARTICULAR PARTS OF THE AREA OF 
THE SHIRE LS DETERMINED BY ACTUAL :SIINING, 
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO ASCERTAIN WHETHER, TO 
WHAT EXTENT, OR UNDER WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES, 
IT WOULD BE REMUNERATIVE TO COLLECT THE 
SAID GOLD. 
The assistance of the chemist, metallurgist, assayer, 
and gold miner must be called in to supplement the 
data obtained by the prospector and geologist : for 
it is now well known that it will—by certain modern 
processes of a chemico-mechanical character—“ pay ” 
to extract gold from rocks and soils that do not ap¬ 
pear to ordinary eyes, or under ordinary optical 
instruments, auriferous. 
