the Hal Clement story Uncommon Sense from 1945 (and anthologized several times since) is another example. The prospector is a scientist, not a Gabby Hayes type, but he is looking for minerals on another world. The story also has one of the most convincing descriptions of a truly alien “sense” I’ve ever read. Technicvally, it would certainly work, and is completely unlike any terrestrial sense. I’m just skeptical that the aliens would exist in the circumstances described.