ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 1 23 



THE OCCURRENCE OF PLATINUM IN NORTH 

 CAROLINA. 



BY F. P. VENABLE. 



The statement that platinum has been found and hence 

 occurs in North Carolina is made in a number of text- 

 books on chemistry, mineralogy and metallurgy. State- 

 ments so wide-spread and often repeated naturalh' lead to 

 inquiries as to where it has been found, who found it, etc. 

 That is, upon what authority is this claim made for the 

 State and who can vouch for, or has seen, the platinum. 

 I have, for a year or two, carefully investigated this ques- 

 tion, and as I seem to have gotten all the information 

 obtainable on the subject, I venture to present it before 

 the Societ}', however unsatisfactory it may be. 



It will be proper here to republish the first mention in 

 a scientific journal of the finding of platinum in the State. 

 Among the " Mineralogical Notes" appearing in the 

 American Journal of Science for 1847 (^d Series, Vol. IV, 

 p. 280), Dr. Charles Upham Shepard reports the follow- 

 ing: 



^^ Native Platinum in North Carolina. — In November 

 last I received in a letter from Hon. T. L. Clingman, of 

 Asheville, N. C. , a small reniform grain of native plati- 

 num, with the following remark: 'The enclosed metallic 

 grain was given me by a friend, who says it was found 

 among the gold of one of his rockers. It looks like plati- 

 num. ' 



"Its w^eight was 2.541 grs. There was no difiicult}', b^• 

 means of its physical and chemical properties, in identify- 

 ing it with the substance above suggested. Its specific 

 gravity ^18. In a subsequent letter, dated January 3d 



