As MA y be divined from its title, this book is about mining geology. Less evident, perhaps, is the fact that it seeks to cover a field rather different from that of texts entitled Mineral Deposits or Economic Geology. Those texts, concerned primarily with the origin and nature of mineral deposits and with descriptions of representative mining districts, provide the• professionalmining geologist with the scientific foundation for his work. They are admirably suited to that purpose and it is in no senseto their discredit that they leave the exact manner of applying this knowledge to the search for ore and the appraisal of mineslargely to the ingenuity of the individual. Manifestly there is no substitute for ingenuity and personaljudgment, especiallyin a vocation which, in the present state of its growth, is fully as much an art as a technology; yet mining geologyhas been a professionin its own right for
a generation or more, and during this time many able men the world
over have been devising techniques of investigation and developing philosophiesof ore-search. It is true that sameof this lore is to be found only in the minds of the seasonedpractitioners and is best acquired through apprenticeshipwith them in the field. Nevertheless,much of it is common knowledge within the profession, even though not com• mitted to paper, and much more is in print, though widely scattered in the technical literature.1 Has not the time arrived when we can gather together someof the fruits of this experiencefor the assistanceof younger geologists,as well as for others who wish to know more about how the mining geologistplies his trade?
Any attempt to .explain what the mining geologistdoes and how he does it requires a survey of that incompletely charted borderland that lies between the respectivedomains of geologyand mining. Of neces• sity the survey encroacheson both realms. Just how far it ought to venture into each, what subjects it should include, and how elementary or how exhaustive should be the treatment of each are questions on which no two authorities are likely to agree. Naturally each indi• vidual tends to set store by the notions and methods that .have proved most useful in his own e~perience,and I can claim no immunity to personal predilections.

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