OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 75 
cose slate are found near Cherokee Ford, associated with the ores of that locality, and at Hale’s 
mine, in Kershaw. In Lancaster it passes into talco-micaceous slate, which is the gold-bearing 
rock of the District. In describing the gold formation the precise limits of these rocks will be 
defined more particularly. : 
Associated with gneiss and mica slate are beds of limestone, which may properly be described 
here. 
LIME-ROCK OF THE GNEISS. 
In Laurens, on a small stream, about a half mile below Ware’s mill, on the Saluda, this rock is seen 
outcropping between ledges of Gneiss, which appear both above and below it in the bed, and upon 
the banks of the stream. The strike of the rocks at this locality is N. 30° E. and the dip S. E. 
40°. Of the thickness of the bed of lime-rock, about fifteen to twenty feet are exposed, rising 
above the water; but as the stream flows along the strike, and has worn away the rock to the level 
of its bed, and covered, on the opposite bank, the rest of the Stratum, it is difficult to ascertain its 
entire thickness. Nothing has yet been done to develope its extent, for the quarrying, so far as it 
has proceeded, has been confined to the most accessible portions of the rock—the mere outcrop. 
With the assistance of Dr. Waits, who discovered this locality, I was enabled to trace the out- 
crop from sixty to eighty yards up and down stream. 
The rock is white, compact, and crystalline, and from its situation almost on the banks of the 
navigable portion of the Saluda, it must, at no distant period, become highly interesting to the 
Districts on the river between this point and Columbia. 
On a branch of Walnut Creek other exposures occur, being evidently prolongations of the 
stratum just examined. The character of the rock is, in every respect, similar, and the indications 
of its extent equally favorable. On Clurdy’s land the rock rises ten or twelve feet above the level 
of the creek; and on Wait’s there are two or three other localities. A slight excavation made here 
exposes the surface of the rock, which is much water-worn, and even excavated into pot-holes.— 
Small veins, containing actinolite, pass through the rock, and occasionally streaks of chlorite are 
seen, contrasting finely with the white color of the base. So that it is probable handsome slabs of 
marble, for ornamental purposes, will be found at this locality, when fairly explored. A few miles 
» distant, and in the direction of the strike of these beds, it is exposed again on the left bank of one of 
the branches of Reaburn’s Creek, where rock has been quarried and used for the manufacture of lime, 
to some extent. At one of the quarries the rock may be examined to advantage, near the lime- 
kiln, where it is interstratified with gneiss and soap-stone. A few hundred yards from the creek, 
and at the foot of the hill, a bed has been explored: it is a crystalline, compact, blue rock, of much 
better quality and of greater thickness. But in every case care should be taken to select for burn- 
ing only the unmixed portion of the bed. 
Above the bridge the underlying beds are exposed over a considerable space, on the opposite 
bank of the stream; they have but little economic value, being nothing more than gneiss, contain- 
ing, among its other constituents, calcareous matter. They prove, however, that the beds of lime- 
rock are contemporaneous with the gneiss in which they occur; that the calcareous matter was 
held in solution or suspension in water, as were the constituents of the rock, and that they were 
