MICA AND THE MICA MINES. 657 



mica from the East Indies has been quite heavy and has closed 

 many of the American mines. The recent tariff of thirty-five per 

 cent is leading to their partial reopening. 



All these mines are more or less alike so far as their natural 

 features are concerned. The chief differences are artificial, and 

 consist in the methods of mining and handling the mica. The 

 mines of western North Carolina have been largely exploited and 

 may well serve as a type. 



As one travels across the State to the westward, one passes 

 over three distinct belts of country : the lowlands, covered by re- 

 cent alluvial deposits ; the middle or Piedmont section, a low pla- 

 teau underlaid by older sandstones and shales ; and, last of all, the 

 western or mountain section, in which the Appalachian system 

 reaches its finest development, and in Mount Mitchell its culmi- 

 nating point. The trend of the rocks, in this mountain section is 

 pretty evenly northeast and southwest ; they dip at angles which 

 are generally forty-five degrees or over. There are a few mica 

 mines to the east of the Blue Ridge, but the most of them and 

 the best lie to the west. Once beyond this barrier, and evidences 

 of mica abound on all sides. One sees the sunlight reflected from 

 plates of mica on distant hill-sides, and the glitter of tiny scales 

 in the bed of every brook. These look so much like gold that 

 one is tempted to turn Argonaut, and try to bring again the 

 golden fleece. For Colchis, it is easy to read Carolina. The 

 talcose schists and slates of the eastern escarpment are here suc- 

 ceeded by the oldest crystalline rocks of the continent, belonging 

 presumably to the Huronian or Laurentian period. There are 

 giant upthrows of granite and gneiss, and these are full of fis- 

 sures carrying the coarsely crystallized matrix in which the pay 

 mica is found. 



It must not be thought, however, that all these veins are alike 

 profitable, or even that the same vein can be relied upon for any 

 great distance, for that would be far from the experience of the 

 practical mica-miner. It is indeed impossible, even after this 

 lapse of time, when some of the mines have been worked inter- 

 mittently for more than a quarter of a century, to reach any gen- 

 eral conclusions as to what conditions are most favorable for a 

 profitable mine. Old miners say that this or that indication is a 

 sure sign of a good mine, but the shrewdest of them confess that 

 mica-mining is pretty much like gambling. A certain amount is 

 staked in the shape of labor and supplies, and one gets in return 

 either hundreds of dollars' worth of mica, or perhaps only barren 

 quartz and feldspar. 



Many of the veins occur in a fine-grained black gneiss, which 

 passes with the mountain miners under the name of "slate." 

 The vein generally dips with the bedding of the gneiss, but occa- 



VOL. XLI. 48 



