MINE SURVEYING AND ENGINEERING.
this chapter we will try to present, in a clear and comprehensive manner, a system of mine surveying or dialling which should be understood and practised by every super intendent of extensive mines where professional engineers are not employed. But no man is fully competent to design and operate an extensive mining establishment who has not the ability to put his plans on paper and verify them by mathematical demon strations. To do this, the compass must be used, and used correctly. In all the opera tions of mining, this instrument is frequently required. Without it there is no certainty, and but little order. If the superintendent or inside manager cannot use the compass, there is always danger of confusion and error. A professional surveyor is not at home in the mines, and is only taken inside once a month, or perhaps not so often, and then more for the purpose of plotting the mine than for the purpose of laying out the work and keeping it in order.
But we need no argument to prove the utility of this art, and its value to mine en gineering. It is indispensable, and should be part of the education of every mining manager or superintendent. By mining superintendent we mean the agent or manager who is responsible for the mining operations.
The professional engineer of mines should, of course, possess a wider range of the en gineering sciences than this short chapter on mine surveying will present. However im portant it may be that he possess the practical information required for the designing of mines, and however certain it may be that they are generally deficient in this part of their profession, we cannot suppose them deficient in the use of the compass or in civil engineering. We do not, therefore, write for the purpose of informing professional
mining engineers on this branch of our subject, but for the instruction of that extremely useful profession, the mining superintendent, who must be supposed to be in possession of the practical, however deficient in the scientific, branches of his business.
We will, therefore, use plain language, and try not to go beyond the depth of ordi nary comprehension, since we write for the instruction of those who know little of the art of surveying or mine engineering; those who are au fait of the science must not expect to find the matter treated in a strictly professional manner.
We propose, however, to follow "Budge's Practical Mine Surveying," as the clearest exposition we can find on this subject; and the tables, diagrams, and examples are mostly from his work. In some cases the mode may be different from that generally used, and some of the rules may be old, but for the learner or the practical miner they will be found more easy to acquire and practise than the more elaborate, though more perfect, instruments and tables of the profession, as now adopted.