THE SCIENCE OF QUARTZ-MINING.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 134, 4 June 1872, Page 6

THE SCIENCE OF QUARTZ-MINING.

: (To the. Editor of the Cuo.mwkll Ainu's,) j Sir,— My curiosity and expectations having I been aroused, a short while ago, by the promises iof your two correspondents, “ Viator” and I “ Crusher,” to inform the public of a way (if not the best way) to make poor reefs pay, imagine my disappointment on perusing “ Viator's” leti ter in youi issue of the 14th hist., in which he c mlly states that he and “Crusher” have given all the information required to that end. Surely the scientific (?) “ Viator” cannot imagine that the employment of a stall’ of scientific men, and the manager’s pricking off, on plan of workings, the daily or weekly amount of work done in the mine, as a captain does his ship’s course on a chart, is all that is required to make poor ground pay,—or would either help the de- | velopmcnt of the mine, or payment of dividends? ; The utter want conveyed in “ Viator’s” letters : of any practical information on the subject which ' heads them, leads me to ask the question,—Can ' it be possible that one who uses such big words \ is, like the Melbourne chemists in the alum case mentioned by “Crusher,” unable to perform ; what he has undertaken? | As for “Crusher,” he must have (morally) a decidedly distorted vision, when ho imagines mining companies are like flocks of sheep, when ; two or three scabby ones taint the whole flock. I have carefully read “Crusher’s” productions, without deriving a single new idea of a more ; economical way of working poor reefs, consider- ! ing their situation, than that now in operation ! on the Carrick, when the means of the parties, jor companies, are adequate. “Crusher” is as decidedly non-scientillc, as “Viator” is the contrary. He does not mean, I presume, to impugn Mr Skey’s report on the Thames reefs, which, if altogether scientific, is at the same time a valuhle one. But little of any service in gold-saving i has of late years been invented or discovered by ! either scientific or practical men. It would, I however, be hardly fair, in consequence, to go ■ the extreme length of condemning either class ; ‘extremes are dangerous, —evidently so in the [case-of your correspondents,

lu the alum case above referred to, is it possible that, in the Hour tested, the alum and flour were not so intimately mingled as to give each chemist the same proportion of alum in the flour to be operated on ? Should this be the case, the fault woold lie with the party mixing the alum and flour, and not with the chemists. I trust that “ Crusher” is not yet at the end of his tether; but, being a “free lance,” will put that weapon in rest, and rescue his co-in-structor from the maledictions of expectant and disappointed miners, and his own “self-created fog.” “Up, “Crusher!” for your credit's sake, Upon them with the pen My motive in writing this is, if possible, to induce “ Crusher” to keep his word, and enlighten all interested in quartz-mining as to the proper manner in which poor reefs are to be made to pay. On “Viator,” this advice will, I fear, be thrown away, as he is (mercy on us !) pachydermatous ! —1 am, &c., Axti-Hemuco. [“ Anti-Humbug ” has fallen into an error regarding the subject-matter of “ Crusher’s” contributions. Until the present week, “Crusher” has written nothing for publication in our columns save two letters on “ The Management of Quartz Mines. ” —Ed. C.A.]