S80 Prof. Olmsted on the Gold Mines of Nori/i Carolhia. 



specimens narrowly, will be convinced that their worn and 

 rounded appearance is owing to attrition, and that the cavities 

 are produced by the indentation of sand and gravel, the exact 

 impress of which may be observed, and particles of them may 

 siill frequently be seen imbedded. The gravel, moreover, 

 which is separated by washing, bears evident marks of attri- 

 tion, of a limited duration, sufficient to round its edges and 

 angles, but not sufficient to destroy them : the fragments are 

 not ovoidal like the pebbles of rivers, but are still flat, retain- 

 ing their original form, except that their edges are dull and 

 their angles blunted. In short, the whole appearance is such, 

 as would naturally result from so soft a substance as virgin 

 gold being knocked about among such stern associates as 

 quartz and greenstone. 



The appearance of fusion, supposed to be exhibited by the 

 gold, has inspired the idea among the miners, llvat the small 

 pieces which they obtain have been melted out from some oit 

 that lies disguised somewhere in the vicinit}^ This idea has 

 frequently made them the dupes of im])osition. The juineral 

 rod, charms, ami other follies, have had their reign here; and 

 the first is still held in some estimation. The common rocks 

 and stones of the country have been tortured by a new race 

 of alchymists, who have imagined them to be the ore of gold, 

 veiling, under some disguise, the characters of the precious 

 metal. A great degree of eagerness also pervades the country 

 on the subject of the metals in general. The minerals thrown 

 out in excavating pits in search of gold, consist chiefly of 

 quartz, greenstone, and hornblende mixed with chlorite, and 

 afford little that is interesting to the collector of specimens. 

 Almost the only substance which I met v/ith, that was worth 

 preserving merely as a specimen, was j^yritotis copper. Of 

 this I saw some elegant fragments. It occurs in a gangue of 

 quartz, and resembles that found at Lane's mine at Hunting- 

 ton, Con. (Amer. Journal of Science, vol. i. p. 316.) A vein 

 of it occurs in slaty clay, six miles east of Concord, in Cabar- 

 rus county. This ore had been subjected to numerous ex- 

 periments, on account of the belief that it was the " ore of 

 gold " above mentioned ; and, although the experiments did 

 not lead to the discovery of gold, yet a " German miner and 

 mineralogist" had, it was said, detected platina in it. On 

 searching into the evidence of so unexpected a result, I was 

 informed that a white metal was pi'oduced from this ore, which 

 was not lead, nor tin, nor silver, but answered perfectly to 

 the description of platina, .tlthough, as they acknowledged, it 

 was easily fused, and burned with a blue flame. I suspected 

 it to be metallic antimony, but still could perceive no signs 



of 



