ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 1 25 



the impression that they might be platinum. They were 

 mixed with the gold of several days' work, and I assisted 

 him in picking them out from a parcel he brought to the 

 bank in this place. They are evidently not grains of 

 platinum.' " 



A description of the grains is given: Structure, sub- 

 fibrous; Hardness = 2.5 — 3.0; Gr. = 12.44 — 12.9; 

 color that of palladium; malleable, etc. 



I think most will agree with Prof. E. S. Dana, w^ho 

 writes, in a letter regarding the above note of Dr. Shep- 

 ard: "The evidence upon which the statement rests, 

 you will see, is not very conclusive." 



I have been unable to find anywhere, either personally 

 or through friends who have kindly searched for me, any 

 other publication of a definite kind of platinum. All 

 other public mention seems to refer to or rest upon the 

 one given above. 



In his Geology of North Carolina, Vol. I, Dr. Kerr says 

 on page 55 of his appendix: 



"The occurrence of grains of platinum among the sands 

 of gold-washings of Rutherford and Burke counties was 

 first brought to notice by General Clingman, who sent half 

 a dozen grains from a mine near Jeanestown to Prof. C. 

 U. Shepard. It has also been found on Brown Mountain, 

 in Burke, according to the information received from Mr, 

 H. Bissell. It is reported as having been found near 

 Burnsville, Yancey county.". 



These statements are copied in all subsequent reports on 

 the Minerals of North Carolina. Even in the last report 

 by Prof. Genth, published as a Bulletin of the United 

 States Geological Survey, No. 74, 1891, the same wording 

 is followed, but Prof. Genth adds, "Hidden, after much 

 searching, failed to discover platinum at any of the reported 

 localities. ' ' As to palladium, which Dr. Kerr reports also 

 as occurring in Burke and Rutherford, Genth says "very 

 doubtful." 



