114 Journal of the Mitchell Society [August 



imderground work lias been done. Wherever any pegmatitic 

 dikes have been encountered in this prospecting, they have con- 

 tained more or less tin oxide, but in very varying percentages. 

 The work has also shown that the pegmatitic dikes are extreme- 

 ly variable in width, both on the strike and dip. There are 

 two points, one known as the Henry shaft and the other the 

 Main shaft, where considerable underground work has been 

 done. 



It is the author's idea regarding the origin of the tin ore 

 found in the Carolina belt, that it is due principally to the di- 

 rect separation or recrysitallization of the cassiterite from the 

 molten pegmatite magma, with perhaps a little also due to a 

 fumarole action, resulting from the escaping vapors during 

 the crystallization of the molten magma of pegmatite intruded 

 into the schists and gneisses in the form of dikes, which in 

 turn had been subjected to the same reactions as the main mass 

 of pegmatite. 



]^one of the Southern tin deposits have thus far proved to 

 be profitable producers of tin ore, although several tons of tin 

 concentrates have been shipped from the Ross mine in South 

 Carolina and from the mines in the vicinity of King's Moun- 

 tain, and Lincolnton, North Carolina. The Lincolnton deposits 

 referred to above have been developed to the greatest ex- 

 tent and have offered the greatest probability of developing a 

 commercial source of tin. A large proportion of the pegmatitic 

 dike which carries the tin has been decomposed and the feldspar 

 been changed to kaolin. There is a possibility of this property 

 becoming a producer of kaolin, with the tin ore as a by-product. 



Virginia: — The occurrence of tin in Virginia was describ- 

 ed by Mr. Arthur Winslow in 1885, and later by Mr. Titus 

 Ulke in 1893. This tin area extends along the eastern edge 

 of Rockbridge County in the line of the Blue Ridge Mountains 

 from a few miles north of the James River Gap to about the 

 north line of the county. Cassiterite has been found at a num- 

 ber of places in this area, but the greatest amount of ore was 

 found along the upper waters of Irish Creek in the northeastern 

 corner of the county. There is one property that has been de- 

 veloped to some extent, and this is known as the Cash mine. 



