66 JOURNAL OF THE 



Moi'gantou by Colonel S. McD. Tate, and sent by him direct to 

 Boston. Among this lot was included the specimens first men- 

 tioned. 



The unpacking of this particular box came into my hands, 

 and the contents were duly exposed in the cases of the Xorth 

 Carolina exhibit. The pieces of cassiterite were found wrapped 

 in a paper and were without any label or mark to distinguish its 

 identity or locality. At once I knew it t<> be cassiterite and so 

 labeled it. (The '' Commercial Bulletin/' Boston, Mass., of Oc- 

 tober 13th, 1883, contains the following paragraph in a lengthy 

 notice of the North Carolina mineral exhibit: "Cassiterite. — 

 Pure tin-oxide. Found massive, and serai-crystallized, in the 

 western part of North Carolina. Sp. Grav. 6.8; hardness 7; 

 70 per cent. tin''). I acquainted all the gentlemen of the North 

 Carolina section with my identification of tin-ore among speci- 

 mens sent from Burke county, and impressed upon them the 

 possibilities which a proper location of the original source might 

 bring about. For the time being I dismissed the matter from 

 my mind, thinking that when opportunity offei'ed I should 

 investigate it myself. To our then State Chemist"^ and to the 

 then Commissioner of Agriculturef I imparted my discovery, 

 and they both expressed great surprise and pleasure that the rare 

 mineral, cassiterite, was at last added to the State's resources. 

 This was in October of 1883. 



In February of the next year public announcement of the 

 discovery of tin at King's Mountain, N. C, was made by Dr. 

 Dabney, who gave the credit to the young student who had 

 merely picked up the ore, and a tin excitement was the result. 

 In all these notices no credit was given to the one who had first 

 identified the mineral as tin ore and to whom the honor of the 

 discovery was properly due under the rule of priority. 



As the sequel proved the discovery prompted a considerable 

 amount of work being done at the locality, with but meagre 

 results in finding paying veins or workable masses of ore. 



*Chas. \V. Dtibnej'. fMontford M. McGehee. 



