Abstract
IN this book will be found much practical information on the mining and subsequent treatment of gold ores, particularly useful to the prospector setting out for Australia. It has often been said that the practical man does not write books, but there is here a complete refutation of the calumny. There are chapters on thez “genesiology” of gold, which are hardly of practical value, on the treatment of ores by various processes, and on company formation. A useful section, too, is devoted to prospecting, in which the various difficulties of finding gold are clearly set forth. “Where it is, there it is,” the author quotes, “and where it is, generally, there I ain't.” The best part of the book, however, is undoubtedly under the heading of the “Rules of Thumb.” Here the practical man shows what he can do. The recipes given are absolutely encyclopædic, and all more or less to the point. We are told how to make fire, how to find water, how to purify it and carry it, how to copy correspondence, to cross a flooded stream, and to build a house. One is lost in admiration at the wealth of knowledge displayed, and the mixture of “cuteness” and simplicity in the remarks.
Getting Gold: a Practical Treatise for Prospectors, Miners, and Students.
By J. C. F. Johnson, Member of the Aust. Inst. of Mining Engineers, Pp. xii + 204. (London: Charles Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1897.)
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Getting Gold: a Practical Treatise for Prospectors, Miners, and Students. Nature 55, 315 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/055315a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/055315a0