To prospect is to examine land, primarily with a view of locating a mining claim.
1845. Nearly all the successful miners commenced with pick and spade, prospecting, i.e., turning up the surface of the hills for signs of mineral.—St. Louis Reveille, Aug. 18.
1848. Two or three men with a bucket, a rope, a pick-axe, and a portable windlass…. [This is] a prospecting party.—N.Y. Lit. World, June 3 (Bartlett).
1850. He had been on a “prospecting” tour, or examining the deep canons of the rivers and ravines for a suitable place to dig.—James L. Tyson, ‘Diary in California,’ p. 73 (N.Y.).
1853. We were first to spend a month in the “timber,” to prospect, as they would say nowadays.—S. A. Hammett (‘Philip Paxton’), ‘A Stray Yankee in Texas,’ p. 56. (Italics in the original.)
1860. Miners do not like to branch out prospecting at present, but many of my companions intend organizing for a prospecting tour during the coming spring.—Oregon Argus, Sept. 15.
1862. See Appendix XIV.
1880. It was here that I first heard the word “prospecting” used. At first I could not understand what Potter meant by the term, but I listened patiently to our garrulous guest, until I discovered its meaning. When gold was first discovered in California, and any one went out searching for new placers, they would say, “He has gone to hunt for new gold diggings.” But as this fact had to be so often repeated, some practical, sensible, economical man called the whole process “prospecting.” So perfectly evident was the utility of this new word that it was at once universally adopted.—Peter H. Burnett, ‘Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer,’ pp. 271–2.
1907. Those who, in prospecting the future of the Catholic organization, debate, &c.—Church Standard (Phila.), Aug. 10.
