IN NORTH AJIERTrA. 197 



tlie cause oi" the early milling exeiteineiit were rediscovered in tlie 

 monntains of Xortli Caioliiia in 18(>8, Prof. Kerr, wlio was State geol- 

 ogist of North Carolina, thus describes them:* "There is one poiut of 

 great inteiest connected with the history of inica-niiiiing in this State 

 which it is worth while to refer to in this connection. This industry 

 is not really new here; it is only revived. Thei)resent shai'ts and tunnels 

 are continually cutting into ancient shafts and tunnels, and hundreds 

 of the spurs and lidges of the mountains, (all over iAIitchell County espe- 

 cially), are found to be honeycondjcd with ancient workings of great 

 extent, of which no one knows the date or history. In ISOS uiy atten- 

 tion was first called to the existence of old mine holes, as they are 

 called in the region. lU'ing invited to visit some old Sptaiish .silrer 

 mines a few miles south of Bakersville, 1 found a dozen <n- nioK^ open 

 pits, 40 to 50 feet wide by To to 100 feet lo]ig, filled up to 15 or 20 of 

 depth, disposed along the slo[>ing crest of a long terminal ridge or spur 

 of a neighboring mountain. The excavated earth was ])iled in huge 

 heai)s about the margins of the pits, and the whole overgrown with the 

 heaviest forest trees, oaks, and chestnuts, some of them 3 feet or more 

 in diameter and some of the largest belonging to a former generation 

 of forest growth, fallen and decayed, facts which indicate a mininuim 

 of not less than three hundred years. There is no appearance of a mineral 

 vein and no clew to the object of these extensive works, unless it was to 

 ol)tain the large plates of mica, or crystals of kyanite, both of which 

 abound in the coarse graidte rock. - - - Since the develoi)ment of 

 mica-mining on a large scale in .AI itched and the adjoining counties it 

 has been ascertained that there are hundreds of old pits and connecting 

 tunnels among the spurs and knobs and ridges of this rugged region, 

 and there remains no doul)t that irnning was carried on here for ages 

 and in a very systematic and skillful way; for among all the scores of 

 mines recently opened, I am inlbrmcd that scarcely one has turned out 

 l)rolitably which did not follow the old workings and strike the ledges 

 wrought by those ancient nuners. The pits aw. always open 'dig- 

 gings,' never regular shafts; and the earth and debris often amount to 

 enormous heaps.*' 



This description would api>ly almost word Ibr word (o the Lake 

 Superior coi)per diggings. The mineral is taken out in large lumjis, .SO 

 or .10 up to several hundred pounds in weight, which split icadily into 

 plates or sheets, sometimes A feet in diameter, and would cut 10 by 20 

 inches. The common forms are 2 or .'> by 4 or <> inches. All Ihis con- 

 firms and explains very fully the statements of the Spanish, Fr(>nch, and 

 English explorers aiul colonists of the sixteenth century. >row that 

 we know what the mineral or "mettall" was, we understand and can 

 explain away the confusion which arose in the inquiry after coi)i)er. 

 Tiie thing which was valuable to the Indians, so valual)le that they 

 adorned their dwellings with it and ]»laced it, with other valuables, in 



"Report of tbo f!cologi(^aI Siirv(!.v of North Carolina, vol. i, 1875, j). 300. 



