\Ued States of America. *^ 



W^ Severn y¥are¥uppieit^^^^^ greater part of the gold com^ 

 at the mint of the United States' government. The principal 

 part of the gold has been procured from the states of North 

 and South Carolina and Georgia. It was first discovered in 

 considerable masses in the sands of rivers ; one mass was found 

 weighing 28 lbs. : it has more recently been found occurring 

 in regular veins intermixed with the minerals which are usually 

 associated with gold ores in other localities. Dr. Macaul]^ 

 an American gentleman who is connected with several extei^ 

 sive proprietors of land in which gold occurs, visited England 

 this spring, and obligingly invited me to examine the specf^ 

 mens he had brought with him, and subsequently presented 

 ine with various specimens of the ore and the rocks in which 

 the gold veins occur; among which is one highly interesting 

 specimen of a vein, rich in ore, with a portion of the rock at4. 

 tached to each cheek or side of the vein. The occurrence of 

 gold in considerable quantities, in the midst of the oldest settle- 

 tnents of the United States, is a fact not only interesting in thte 

 natural history of those States, but is one which cannot fail to 

 produce important effects on their commercial relations. TJh^ 

 following brief description of the North American repositories 

 of gold ore, communicated to me verbally by Dr. Macauly, will^ 

 I trust, be acceptable to many of your readers ; I shall add td 

 it an account of the specimens he has given me, illustrative bf 

 the geology of the gold districts. -dowJ 



To make the account more generally intelligible, Idsh^ 

 first take a summary view of the geology and physical strtte- 

 ture of a portion of the United States extending from the sea 

 coast to the ranges of the long chain of the Alleghany Mqiin- 

 tains, which separate the rivers that flow westward into t^d 

 Atlantic, from those which flow southward into the Gulf of 

 Mexico. The range of sea coast from the south of Georgia 

 toXong Island takes a north-easterly direction ; and the ranges 

 of the Alleghany Mountains, in the interior, run nearly in the 

 same direction, which is also that of the different beds of rock 

 that occur between the sea arid these mountain ranges. The 

 traveller who lands upon the coast between latitude 30° and 

 42°, and advances westward, will have to pass over a vast 

 extent of sand and gravel, with masses of loose rock and clay 

 beds, composing what may be called the alluvial and diluvM 

 deposition ; or, what are by the French more properly termed 

 ter-rains de transport ; viz., lands formed of the debris or 

 ruins of the more solid parts of the earth's surface, and 

 carried into their present position by inundations from tli^ 

 breaking down of lakes, or the irruptions of the oceaiji^ 

 These diluvial depositions for the most part cover the solid 



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