I intend to make this volume a miner's manual, in which he may find important directions relating to the various mining operations. Another motive with the writer is the desire to induce all who are doing well enough, who are liv ing within their means and laying by a little, to re main satisfied at home. The question is often asked, Who should go to the mines It is very sure that a man with a family depending upon his daily efforts should not go. He should not exhaust his slender means, and run himself in debt, with the hope of making himself independent in one or two years. Let such a one, who is inclined to do this, picture to himself his wife struggling alone with poverty or sickness, his children left without a father's presence and love to guide and protect, and himself a home less wanderer, subjected to the privations, hardships, and sickness incident to such a vagrant life.