ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 97 



at depths varying from 35 to 50 feet in a shaft of prehistoric 

 age, were found in 1875 some iron implements, as a pair of gud- 

 geons, a wedge, etc., of wrought-iron. Shaft mining has been 

 carried on in this State for 200 years or more. An exploring 

 party sent out by De Soto may have penetrated as far north as 

 the south-western corner of Xorth Carolina. 



Prehistoric remains of open cuts and shafts for mica mining 

 are found in Alabama, along a line stretching from Chilton county 

 north-east through the counties of Coosa, Clay and Cleburne. 



It is a little surprising that an industry so old, and yet s'o new, 

 should have received such scant attention. There is, perhaps, in 

 the whole country no better place for the study of fissures, and 

 of the forces causing them, than a well opened mica mine. 



It is the purpose of the writer during the ensuing summer to 

 figure and describe more particularly some of the more interest- 

 ing of these mines in Yancey and Mitchell counties, and to seek 

 anew for the relations subsisting between the quality and quan- 

 tity of the mica, and the depth, dip, strike and walling of the 

 vein, and the influence exerted by accompanying minerals. 



If what has been said shall lead those concerned in such mat- 

 ters to inquire more especially into them, this article has not 

 been written in vain. The mica mining counties will well repay 

 close study, not only on account of the mica, but even more on 

 account of other minerals, as iron ores, chrome ores, corundum, 

 asbestos, graphite, talc, etc. Some of the most magnificent forests 

 of virgin timber in this or any other country still adorn the 

 mountains and hills of these counties. Chestnut, locust, walnut, 

 poplar, pine, cherry, etc., flourish in great abundance and beauty. 

 The new railroad projected down the Toe river in Tennessee will 

 open a country that needs only to be known to be appreciated. 

 A fertile soil, an unsurpassed climate, varied and abundant natu- 

 ral products all combine to render this part of Xorth Carolina 

 the potential garden spot of the State. 



