Remarks on the Gold Mines of Virginia. - 127 
the country. Several persons of good character stated to me, that 
they, by washing, had obtained gold upon this tract ; and gold was 
procured on the lands, under my own eye, by the usual process of 
digging down to the gravel and washing; Mr. Forrest Shepherd, 
also, both now and formerly, procured the same result. These facts, 
taken in connection with the structure of the country, and with the 
additional fact, that in the immediate vicinity there is a rich gold 
mine, leave no doubt that this tract belongs to the same gold for- 
mation. The important question, whether this ]and contains gold 
enough to justify working it by superficial or by mining processes, 
can be decided only by actual trials. There appears sufficient en- 
couragement to render it proper to expend a reasonable sum in dig- 
ging into and washing the gravel in numerous places, and in opening 
the principal quartz veins, here and there, for a few feet or yards in 
de 
Fauquier and Culpeper Counties. 
The extensive tracts about to be mentioned, in the counties of 
Fauquier and Culpeper, amount, collectively, to three thousand or 
four thousand acres, but in them no considerable explorations for gold 
have been made. There are no shafts or adits to afford facilities 
for observation, nor have even the alluvial deposits been, to any con- 
siderable extent, examined by the simple operations of the washing 
pan. It was not in my power to make any attempts of this nature: 
there were no means at hand for such purposes, nor was it in any 
way possible for me, at the time, to discharge the duties of the prac- 
tical miner; I did, however, all that the circumstances of the case 
admitted. __ 
* I have recently seen a letter, dated Nov. 21, 1836, from a master miner on the 
spot, a man of skill and integrity, with whom Tam personally pape: Stating. 
that a very rich vein has been discovered upon the land adjoining this tract u oh 
the south, and it is believed that the vein runs through the ground now aed con- 
sideration. A new vein has also been discovered in the Walton territory, tothe 
west of the main vein ; it promises to be eee n suppo 
cas ir ty rosa ee an epination, It es, indeed, be most extraor- 
‘this, 
