to trace the true course.

For indications, never pass an ironstone "blow" without examination.
Remember the pregnant Cornish saying with regard to mining and the
current aphorism, "The iron hat covers the golden head." "Cousin Jack,"
put it "Iron rides a good horse." The ironstone outcrop may cover a
gold, silver, copper or tin lode.

If you are searching for gold, the presence of the royal metal should be
apparent on trial with the pestle and mortar; if silver, either by sight
in one of its various forms or by assay, blowpipe or otherwise; copper
will reveal itself by its peculiar colour, green or blue carbonates, red
oxides, or metallic copper. It is an easy metal to prospect for, and
its percentage is not difficult to determine approximately. Tin is more
difficult to identify, as it varies so greatly in appearance.

Having found your lode and ascertained its course, you want next
to ascertain its value. As a rule (and one which it will be well to
remember) if you cannot find payable metal, particularly in gold "reef"
prospecting, at or near the surface, it is not worth while to sink,
unless, of course, you design to strike a shoot of metal which some one
has prospected before you. The idea is exploded that auriferous lodes
necessarily improve in value with depth. The fact is that the metal in
any lode is not, as a rule, equally continuous in any direction, but
occurs in shoots dipping at various angles in the length of the lode, in
bunches or sometimes in horizontal layers. Nothing but actual exploiting
with pick, powder, and brains, particularly brains, will determine this
point.

Where there are several parallel lodes and a rich shoot has been found