128 JOURNAL OF THE 



Alabama. I was most thorough in and around Ruther- 

 fordton and up to Jeanestown and Brindletown. The 

 lamented Prof. Kerr gave me personal instruction at the 

 time, and through him I learned of the Shepard 'find' (of 

 a few small nuggets of platinum), at a place near to ' old 

 Whitesides settlement,' not far from Golden P. O., Ruther- 

 ford county. Neither panning nor chemical tests showed 

 any platinum in the concentrations of the auriferous grav- 

 els wherever operated. * * * j fonnd no platinum on 

 Brown Mountain. I know of no authentic finds of plati- 

 num in North Carolina and have no knowledge of any out- 

 side of the Clingman-Shepard statements, which are so 

 universally quoted as facts. 



''Do not understand me as believing for a moment that 

 platinum does not exist in North Carolina, but only that 

 I do not know of such occurrence. The extraordinary 

 development of chrysolite-serpentine rocks in North Caro- 

 lina may yet be shown to contain platinum in commercial 

 quantity — who knows? When a nugget of platinum can 

 be found enclosing a large per cent, of chromite, as was the 

 case near Plattsburg, N. Y. (Collier), I begin to think that 

 the chromite deposits of North Carolina may be profitably 

 searched for the now ver}- valuable metal. 



"In 1879 I saw a good deal of lead (weathered bullets 

 and shot) that passed as platinum from the gold gravels, 

 but I repeat that I saw no platinum." 



I have presented all the information that I can get on the 

 subject. Only one scientific examination of the reported 

 finds seems ever to have been made, and that of one grain 

 "given by a friend" to General Clingman and sent by him 

 to Dr. Shepard. 



It is exceedingly strange that the other "finds" reported 

 were not subjected to the examination of an expert, and 

 that the specimens cannot be found in the museums of the 

 country. General Clingman' s reports would show it to be 



