90 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 
might have fallen into the interval left between the vein and the granite, on the contraction of the 
former, but the possibility of this was precluded by the fact that the lamine of the slaty portion 
were parallel with the vein, which could not have been the case had it resulted from infiltration 
from above. Had the vein passed downwards through the slates it might have carried portions of 
the slate with it, but this was evidently not the case. 
Neither could it have resulted from any injection of the granite and veins among i slates, for 
there was no appearance of disturbance. 
A similar phenomenon is presented at the Nuckols and Norris mine, although not to the same 
extent. The partition of slate accompanying the vein is not so thick, but in other respects it is 
similar. From a minute examination of these localities, 1am forced to the conclusion that this 
slaty partition is the result of the metamorphic action of the vein, which must have been injected 
ina melted state. In the homogeneous masses into which both granite and slates are often reduced 
by decomposition, it is very difficult to distinguish one from the other; and any cause that would 
produce a slight modification or re-arrangement of. the constituents of granite, would convert it into 
slate. 
Some curious mines were discovered a few miles higher up the river, and above Haster-wood 
Shoals, consisting of taleo-micaceous slates, intersected by veins of feldspar, passing into kaolin ; 
the auriferous veins being coarse, crystalline granite. At Littlejohn’s, not far distant, on the con- 
trary, the gold-bearing lodes were quartz, and although granite veins were common in the HES, 
they contained no gold. 
Farr Forrest MInEs. 
These mines occur on a creek of that name, north-west of the village of Unionville, and very 
near the Spartanburg line. 
One of the most extraordinary of them is known as Nott’s mine, which consists of an enormous 
and irregular vein of quartz, in some places forty feet thick, crossing the slates at a small angle— 
dip. 45°. The slates near the surface are much disintegrated, having little more tenacity than 
ordinary earth. A level of about fifteen or twenty feet in depth was worked open-cast, like a 
quarry, and an immense quantity of ore taken out; but as the greater portion of it consisted of 
massive quartz, it must of course have been quite poor—a deficiency compensated for by the quan- 
tity. At present a shaft, ninety feet in depth, is sunk on the back of the vein, with which it is con- 
nected by a short cross cut. Near the shaft the lode is worked to water level, and only the aurifer- 
ous portion mined. The slates have become harder, and the granite cannot be far distant, for very 
near the mine it was reached in an adit which was attempted to be driven in the hill side. It was 
soft, like that underlying the Nuckols and Norris mine. We may look for much important informa- 
tion from those mines where the lodes pass from the granite through the slates. In all mining 
districts, important changes are looked for, under such circumstances, and the passage of veins 
from one rock to another, is noticed with interest. It must be observed, however, that it is only 
true veins, and these, in the gold mines of South Carolina, are generally massive quartz, that we 
can expect to trace downwards into the lower rocks. Even the slaty auriferous ores are subject to 
variation, dependent upon changes that have taken place in the slates in which they are enclosed. 
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