OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 5G 
between the flinty rock and a fine, exceeding white sand, of which the greater part of the bed is 
made up. It is remarkable that the tale shows itself most in the first stages of the disintegration 
of the rock. ‘The iron which it contained is converted into the peroxide, which, together with the 
tale, appears as if cementing angular fragments of the rock, giving it the appearance of a breccia. 
The change of color is also not a little curious: the dark hornstone becomes, when disintegrated, a 
snow-white sand. Irregular masses of rock are interspersed, and the bed is traversed by veins of 
massive quartz. 
The evidence of igneous action here is unequivocal. Cubic spaces, once occupied by crystals of 
_ sulphuret of iron, are lined with a thin coat of peroxide of iron, beautifully iridescent. 'The 
same appearance is presented by the fissures, which are covered by a glazing of iron, as if by the 
sublimation of that metal. In other parts of the mine the rock is quite vesicular, and almost con- 
verted into a black scoria. 
When I first saw this mine, open-cast excavations, in several places, were commenced, and in 
some spots prosecuted to a depth of fifty feet. When I re-visited the place, after an interval 
of two years, it was scarcely possible to recognise it as the same mine. Had a detachment from 
an enemy been sent to destroy the mine, I cannot imagine how they could have executed their 
task more completely. Nor is this the fault of the intelligent and worthy superintendent, who is 
fully aware of the evils of the miserable system practiced, and as sincerely deplores them. The 
whole grows out of the system of letting, prescribed by the owners; and truly “killing the goose 
to get the golden eggs” seems here scarcely a fable. 
A portion of the mine equal to about twelve feet square of the surface is let to a company, num- 
bering from three to six persons, who work it as they think proper, and abandon it when thoy please. 
It requires no argument to show that where twenty or thirty such companies are working in this 
independent manner, there can be little system and less mining, in the proper sense of the term. 
No grinding apparatus has been used to any extent—the soft portion of the gangue alone being 
washed for the precious metal; and even that is excavated in the most reckless and unworkman- 
like manner: and in washing, the worst form of the common rocker is the only instrument used. 
In a common deposit mine, where the auriferous bed is only a few feet thick, the loss from this 
mode of working would be very considerable ; but where a mine is worked to a depth of fifty or 
sixty feet it must be incalculable. 
The whole of this mine will, no doubt, at some future day, be worked over again. Even at pre- 
sent, in some instances, the ore has been re-washed with profit. 
I found here masses of bismuth ochre, of ten or twelve pounds weight, which presented strong 
indications of the existence of a greater quantity.. But gold alone engrosses every one’s attention, 
. and I could induce no further search for this valuable ore. Bismuth also occurs native at this mine, 
and is taken up by the mereury during the process of amalgamation, so that it has sometimes hap- 
pened that when the miner imagined he had in his amalgam a fine lump of gold, it has turned out 
to be, on driving off the mercury, nothing more than a piece of bismuth. I saw, in Hale’s mine, 
silver taken up in a similar manner, but suppose it may have resulted from lost coins ground up in 
the mill. 
There are some other mines on Lynch’s Creek that seem to be connected. They are scattered 
25 
