OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 95 
[had an opportunity of observing this mine in a new shaft, about fifteen feet deep, sunk for 
exploration, on the auriferous beds, which resembled true veins in the manner in which they crossed 
the slates, yet they differed from such, in having no walls, separating them -from the slates, and 
also in being laminated. 
The following section (Fig. 20) will convey a correct idea of this mine at the time I saw it. 
: The vertical dark lines represent the veins * 
passing through the slates, and dislocated by 
the seams that cross them from right to left— 
I think that this phenomenon must be referred 
to the same cause that produced a similar one 
in Lawson’s mine, namely, the oxidation of the 
iron and predominance of quartz along these 
lines; for in the mine it was difficult to dis- 
tinguish them from the surrounding slates, ex- 
cepting by their more ferruginous and sandy 
appearance. ' 
I have not seen a true gold-bearing vein at 
any of these localities, although adjoining the 
mines there are large veins of massive quartz 
capping the hills; but they contain not a par- 
ticle of gold. 
Numerous irregular excavations are seen 
west of this and below Bellair, but the work- 
P ings have not been continued to any depth. A 
few miles lower down, Massey’s mine may be seen, not far from the road side. It has little to dis- 
tinguish it from those just described, excepting, perhaps its very white and soft slates, and the 
arenaceous character of the gangue, which is so white and pure, when washed in the mill, as to 
be fit for the manufacture of glass. 
At Turkey Point, on the Catawba, near the site of the old Indian village, the rocks of this region 
are finely exposed. The only mineral, however, that they contain at this place, is sulphuret of 
iron. From this point they cross the river and re-appear in the south-east corner of York District, 
where a little gold has been found. South and west of the vill f Lancaster nearly one-third of 
the District is covered with the slates of the gold formation, and mines are dotted along the ridges 
in various directions. 
Blackman’s mine is among the first that I examined, where the rock is a true talcose slate. 'The 
colors of the rock are striking, being bright green, purple, and silver white. Mines situated in true 
taleose slates have the advantage of being uniform throughout, and not soft on the surface and 
hard below. The productive portion of the slates here are thick, wedge-shaped beds, enclosed in 
the barren slates. A vast quantity of ore seems to have been taken from this mine, and on the 
whole it seems to have been worked with some judgment. Very similar to this is Hale’s mine, 
on the edge of Kershaw: like it, it is composed principally of talcose slates, and the gold is dis- 
seminated in beds of great thickness. The bed worked when I saw the mine, was fifteen feet thick 
