56 Geological and Miner alogical Character of [Feb., 



smaller amounts of gossan on the surface. The Ducktown mines do 

 not occur on the mountain ranges, but are in a series of low ridges 

 included in a cove between surrounding mountains. It is the opin- 

 ion of some, that these hills were once of equal hight with the adja- 

 cent mountains, but have been reduced by the denuding action of 

 water. It is a general rule, that metallic veins, not affected by 

 chemical action from above, increase in width as they are followed 

 downwards. It would appear from this, that metallic veins, in their 

 protrusion into the strata, have contracted as they approached the 

 surface, and that where denudation has diminished the hight of the 

 mountains, the metallic veins must be of greater thickness, than 

 where they maintain their original elevation. The Ducktown mines 

 being on grounds many hundred feet lower than the mountain ranges, 

 will present their veins in as favorable a position, as to thickness, as 

 the mountain leads would show, if mined to the depth of one or two 

 thousand feet. As, then, the amount of gossan exposed on the sur- 

 face, must depend upon the thickness of the veins, and the propor- 

 tion of arsenical iron in them, it will be readily inferred that the 

 iron gossan leads, where they pass through the mountains, must nec- 

 essarily make less show than on the low grounds. 



There were doubts at one time, when the supplies of black ore 

 were found to be limited, whether the mines of Ducktown would be 

 permanent. This question could only be settled by testing the lower 

 portion of the lode for yellow ore. This was undertaken by the 

 Hiwassee Company, and a shaft has been sunk so as to cut the lode 

 at the depth of seven hundred feet. The work is superintended by 

 Capt. Harris, an intelligent English gentleman, familiar with min- 

 ing. At the depth of one hundred and forty feet, an adit was run 

 out from the shaft to the lode, the results of which he reports thus : 

 ' The farther I get into the lode, the better it proves to be. I am at 

 present five feet in the lode; if it continues to improve, it will sur- 

 pass any thing I ever saAv.' Again, at a later date, he says : ' The 

 vein has been intersected by a cross-cut sixty feet lower, being two 

 hundred feet from the surface. At this depth it has greatly im- 

 proved. Masses of fine yellow snlphuret of copper occur in abund- 

 ance. This is considered as settling the value of the mines.' 



A word as to the productiveness of the Ducktown copper mines. 

 The first mine was discovered in 1850, and no shipments of ores, on 

 a large scale, could then be made, nor until long afterwards, for want 

 of roads. Even at present it is forty-three miles to Cleveland, on 



