INTRODUCTORY. 
5 
the natural qualifications of the race for this class of work are very 
great; but it should be borne in mind that only those Chinese who have 
a fitness for it are likely to undertake it, while many white men pretend 
to be miners, though unskillful, on account of the high wages paid to 
that class. On the other hand, good Chinese miners command increased 
wages. Already they are paid in many localities nearly as much as 
whites; and there is no reason to doubt that in the course ot time the 
equilibrium will be established, and the quantity and quality of labor, 
not the race of the laborer, will become the measure of wages. Chinese 
miners are now receiving $1 75 and $2 per day, where they formerly 
worked for $1 and $1 25. 
4. In hard rock they do best with “single” drills, of small steel. So do 
all miners. The use of the small single drill is becoming quite general 
in our mines, and is found, where circumstances are favorable, to effect 
a large saving of cost. One objection to it is, that it is likely to involve 
underhand stoping, since the single-handed drill cannot conveniently 
be used in upward holes; and underhand sloping is expensive in mines 
where the “deads” are packed away in the stopes, and where much 
timbering is required to support the hanging wall. Generally, where 
small drills are used, the quicker explosives, such as rifie-powder, dyna 
mite, Hercules powder, (a mixture of nitro glycerine and common pow 
der,) etc., are best. 
5. The greatest superiority of good Chinese miners over European 
miners is their fidelity. Every mining captain knows that the latter, 
if working by the shift, need watching to prevent them from idling, 
and, if working by contract, have a hundred ways of getting the better 
in the bargain. Now, I do not believe this to be a national character 
istic. It is simply professional. When Chinamen shall have worked 
underground for a generation or two, they also may have acquired these 
peeuliarites. For the present, however, it is certainly true that they 
are far more earnest and faithful than any other miners. In every de 
partment they enjoy the universal reputation of conscientious fidelity. 
Apart from every other advantage or disadvantage attendant upon 
their employment, apart from the discrepancy in wages, even, this one 
attribute of fidelity to the interests of the employer will certainly carry 
the day for the almond-eyed laborers, if our white workmen do not 
recognize the danger in which they stand, and avert it by far more sen 
sible means than they have hitherto employed. Good workmen, engaged 
in avocations which require skill or involve peril, must be allowed to 
receive higher wages than their comrades. Ambitious workmen must 
be free to work extra hours, to take odd jobs, to save money for the 
purposes of study, self-improvement, and advancement, and all work 
men must maintain and manifest a desire to earn what they receive, 
filíese natural laws being defied, the disastrous result will be inevitable, 
no matter how long it is postponed ; and the punishment will lall heavi 
est, as it always does, upon the poor. No country, where the common