Notice of Gold in North Carolina, “181 
he now concludes to publish it, although at so great a distance of time 
from its date, believing that the facts are still valuable, and trusting 
that the author will forgive the delay.—Eb. 
TO PROFESSOR SILLIMAN. 
Dear Sir—Your letter, directed to the postmaster of this place, 
was by him handed to me some weeks since, and would have been 
answered sooner but on account of indisposition, which prevented 
me from complying with the request therein contained as soon as 
my own wishes would have dictated. Even now I feel a delicacy 
in writing upon a subject to which my limited mineralogical know- 
ledge prevents me from doing adequate justice. 
Before entering into a statement of the facts connected with the 
large quantity of gold lately found near this place, and to which 
your letter of inquiry refers, it will be necessary to premise, that 
the gold of this section of country is found in three separate and 
distinct situations, varying essentially, not only in their locality, but 
in the appearance exhibited by the metal itself, and the minerals 
with which it is connected. 
The first and doubtless the most important situation, both as re- 
gards the certainty and continuance of its products, in which gold is 
found, is that of veins. Here it is found mingled with quartz and 
slate, (I speak in the common language of the country,) either in 
_ crystals of sulphuret of iron, or the sulpburet being apparently de- 
composed, and an oxide formed in the crevices of the rock, which 
give it the appearance and designation among the miners of honey- 
comb. The gold is found in veins, exhibiting peculiar and distinet 
appearances from that found, secondly, in alluvial deposits. These 
alluvial deposits, as their name imports, are found in valleys, and no 
doubt are produced by the washing from the veins of the adjacent 
hills. ‘This seems probable from the fact, that the adjacent hills are 
in every instance, when examined, found to contain veins of gold 
more or less valuable—that the deposits themselves are at various 
distances from the surface, and that the pieces of gold, when found, 
whether pure or connected with quartz, always exhibit that peculiar - 
rounded appearance which is produced by the agitation of water. 
The third situation in which gold is found, and that which is most 
surprising, is that of deposits, or, to use the expression of the miners, 
** pockets,” on the tops or declivities of hills. This differs from the 
first situation in not exhibiting regularly formed veins, and from the 
