Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/47

 Rh practically only the needs of the miner have to be considered. The agricultural and allied interests of the territory are being investigated by other governmental bureaus.

The attitude of the public towards the science of applied geology has so materially changed during the last decade that its practical value is now generally recognized, though a few still remain skeptical as to the commercial importance of the results. This attitude exists partly because geology (not being an exact science) has often been brought into disrepute by dilettantism, if not downright charlatanism. Among technicians, however, it has become generally accepted that with the increase of geologic knowledge of a given region comes a decrease of the element of chance in the discovery of ore bodies. Intelligent prospecting should and can be based upon scientific principles, for a properly executed geologic map will define the areas within which there is a probability of finding a given kind of mineral deposit. The veriest tyro need hardly be told not to seek coal in a granite, nor would he ordinarily prospect for gold in a region of coal-bearing rocks. The geologist carries this classification of the rocks still farther, and may thereby prophesy the occurrence of ore deposits in a region which he has mapped. The actual discovery of ore is no part of the work of the geologist; this demands detailed examinations and often excavation, such as only individual property-owners can make. This point is emphasized because, even among the well-informed, the question is often raised why the geologist does not more often discover mineral deposits. Lack of appreciation of the relation of applied geology to mining is traceable in part to the stories current of the bonanzas discovered by an accident to a mule, the luck of a tenderfoot or the appetite of birds, which are in the popular mind so interpreted as to throw discredit upon geologic science.

The intelligent prospector has learned that even at best his chance of success is small; but is much increased by a knowledge of the geology of a region he intends to explore. With a better understanding of the laws which govern the occurrence, origin and distribution of mineral deposits the old-fashioned, picturesque haphazard prospector, to whom it must be admitted we owe the discovery of most of our mineral wealth, will disappear, and the technician will take his place. This is probably the last field where the specialist will crowd out the man of purely practical training; but it is a substitution bound to take place in time.

A geologic survey has two objects: first, the increase of scientific knowledge, and, second, the application of this knowledge to the mining industry. The purely scientific investigations include many subdivisions and ramifications that can not here be considered, but it will be evident, even to the layman, that, while any part of the earth's surface