Page:The Journal of geology (IA journalofgeology11893univers).pdf/31

The Mines and Mining Building at the World's Columbian Exposition contains exhibits of the different mining industries of the various states of the United States and of foreign countries, exhibits of many of the manufactured products derived from these industries, exhibits of various kinds of mining and engineering machinery, and many private mineralogical and petrographical collections of great value and interest. To describe the whole would require a volume, and it is the intention of the present paper to discuss only some of the more important features of the state exhibits, with occasional references to the foreign exhibits.

A mining exhibit should seek to show the actual resources of the region it represents, whether these resources be developed or undeveloped, and to give the different products prominence according to their present or prospective importance to the region. The products of present importance should be exhibited as showing what the region actually produces; the products of prospective importance should be exhibited as showing what the region contains in bountiful quantities, but what is not yet utilized, either from lack of knowledge on the part of the public concerning it, from temporary inaccessibility, or from some other cause. By this means many valuable materials, which have not yet been developed, are brought to the attention of the general public, and often to that of specialists on such subjects, and in this way receive quicker development than if they had not been exhibited. It is often difficult to give the proper relative importance in an exhibit to products actually being mined and those which have not yet been devel-