Prospecting for Minerals: a Practical Handbook for Prospectors, Explorers, Settlers, and all interested in the Opening-up and Development of New Lands

Abstract

THIS little work forms the first volume of a new series of handbooks to be edited by Prof. Grenville Cole, and issued under the title of “The New Land Series.” Although it can hardly be said that the title of the series is very happily chosen, it will be immediately admitted that the object of the series is distinctly good. The explorer or the settler in any new country needs, in most cases, some instruction as to the best means of discovering and developing its resources. Of all pioneers of civilisation, the mineral prospector is the most likely nowadays to lead the way; and the first volume of the series is, therefore, appropriately devoted to the subject of prospecting. The preparation of the work has been entrusted to Mr. Herbert Cox, a well-known mining engineer in London, who has in his day travelled widely and seen much of mines and minerals. Those who know the character of his professional work will feel no doubt as to his ability to lead the prospector in the way he should go; and an examination of the volume shows that its value is beyond dispute. Mr. Cox has furnished the prospector with a portable guide, which, while essentially practical, contains sufficient geology and mineralogy to explain the scientific principles on which the search for minerals should be based. The rough-and-ready prospector may probably think that the science is too much in evidence, and may grow impatient as he turns over pages about such things as “anhydrous silicates of lime and alumina and their crystallographic allies.” But the explorer should clearly understand that, notwithstanding occasional accidents, the most trustworthy results in the search for minerals will, in the long run, be reached by that man who brings to bear upon his work the widest range of scientific knowledge.

Prospecting for Minerals: a Practical Handbook for Prospectors, Explorers, Settlers, and all interested in the Opening-up and Development of New Lands.

By S. Herbert Cox. Pp. xi + 239. With illustrations. (London: Charles Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1898.)