96 JOURNAL OF TIIK 



shaft mining is the rule and open cut the exception, and in the 

 latter open cut is the rule and shaft mining the exception. 



The much vexed question of cost accounts should not be sub- 

 mitted to census-takers. It needs something more than mere 

 scientific information to settle the actual cost of even so simple 

 a product as mica, aud while the local conditions in North Caro- 

 lina favor cheap mining they do not necessarily imply it. After 

 devoting several years to the study of North Carolina mica 

 mines, and, what is a still more difficult subject, mica miners, I 

 do not as yet find myself in a position to give an opinion on the 

 cost of a pound of mica ready for shipment. That it is less 

 now than it was ten years ago there is good reason for believing, 

 as also for believing that it will be still farther diminished by 

 the introductiou of improved machinery, drills, hoists, etc. 



The miners and dealers in North Carolina are not at present 

 at all happy over their prospects. The change to a smaller pat- 

 tern, the importation of foreigu mica (which pays no duty), and 

 the discovery of other mines, as in Dakota, Black Hills, Colo- 

 rado, etc., are among the chief causes of alarm. 



The output is diminishing, and that in spite of many good 

 mines still unworked. The industry, while, indeed, never of any 

 very great dimensions, was of considerable consequence to the 

 immediate vicinity. 



Probably $300,000 was the geatest value ever reached by any 

 annual yield, and for the 20 years in which the business has been 

 carried on it is not likely that the value of the product exceeds 

 $1,700,000. 



Mitchell and Yancey counties have contributed most of the 

 mica from North Carolina. Good mines have also been opened 

 and worked in the counties of Stokes, Cleveland and Rutherford, 

 east of the Blue Ridge, and Buncombe, Haywood, Jackson, 

 Macon and Cherokee, west of the Ridge. 



According to W. C. Kerr, a timbered shaft 100 feet deep 

 has been discovered on Valley River, Cherokee county. 



F. W. Simonds* states that in the Guyer mine, Macon county, 



*American Naturalist, 1881,7. 



