78 JOURNAL OF Tin: 



Mountain and others in Yancey county, the Pizzle (now Cloud- 

 land), Deake, Flat Rock, Mart Wiseman (famous for rare min- 

 erals) and others in Mitchell county were opened and worked. 

 The fcver spread, and in the counties of Buncombe, Haywood, 

 Jackson and Macon other mines were added to those already in 

 operation. Strange stories were told of the curious minerals 

 found in some of the mines. J. G. Heap, the pioneer of regular 

 mica mining, and one of the shrewdest of men, told me that he 

 has seen masses of " uranium ore" as large as his head imbedded 

 in perfectly white kaolin. Not being then apprised of its value 

 (in 1869 some parts of Mitchell county were on the confines of 

 mineralogical knowledge) he paid no especial attention to it, and 

 it was thrown on the dump and lost. He knew better before 

 long, as did the others, and now uraninite and gummite, etc., are 

 saved. A few years ago, watching the emptying of the water 

 bucket at the Flat Rock mine, I was able to secure some very 

 handsome specimens of uraninite and gummite. Several old 

 miners standing near remarked that when the mine was first 

 opened those minerals were much more common and in much 

 larger pieces. The first miners mined for mica and paid but 

 little attention to other minerals, and they very likely threw on 

 the dump many interesting and valuable minerals as not being 

 their point d'appui. 



Mitchell county has been the scene of the most extensive op- 

 erations, the deepest mines are located here, and by far the greater 

 amount of mica sent to market from North Carolina has been 

 obtained here. 



The county lies between the Blue Ridge on the east and the 

 Smoky Mountains on the 'west, being a part of the great western 

 plateau between these two ranges. Its average elevation is not 

 far from 3,500 feet, and it slopes gradually from east to west, 

 the highest point, Roan Mountain, lying on the Tennessee boun- 

 dary. The eastern boundary, the Blue Ridge, attains a height 

 of 5,228 feet in the Sugar Mountain, while Roan Mountain on 

 the west rises to a height of about 6,400 feet. There is on the 

 whole, therefore, an upward slope towards the west. Some in- 



