SSI Pi of. Olmsteil on the Gold Mines (f North Carolhut. 



and iinyiekling like (juartz. The effect of running water ar.d 

 dashing rocks would be to wear down the pieces of gold and 

 compress them, but not to break thpm. The fine flakes and 

 dust of gold may be conceived to have been produced in this 

 manner ; and the relative quantity of dust may afford some 

 means of judging of the original size of the lumps and grains 

 from which it was derived. In the gold of this formation, but 

 little dust, comparatively, is saved, although more, I believe, 

 might be saved by a more improved process of working. At 

 jiresent the greater j)art collected is in the state of grains, or 

 small scattered lumps. The inference is, that this gold existed 

 originally, that is, before its removal to its present position, in 

 pieces somewhat larger than those found at present, but still 

 of a moderate size. Whether these pieces lay contiguous to 

 one another in a large vein, or whether they were flattened 

 abroad in individual masses, it is, perhaps, impossible to de- 

 cide. The fact that small veins have been found traversing 

 quartz, favours the idea that this was the original mode of ex- 

 istence. 



There are some circumstances which induce the belief, that 

 the materials of the deposit itself were derived from the great 

 slate formation before mentioned. The green mud may be 

 supposed to have been formed out of the chlorite and argil- 

 laceous rock, with which the formation abounds ; the green- 

 stone pebbles correspond with a class of rocks of the same for- 

 mation ; and the quartzose fragments answer well in aj^pear- 

 ance to the larger fragments, that are profusely scattered over 

 the ridges of the slate country. Moreover, two masses of gold, 

 each weighing several pennyweights, have been found in the 

 county of Orange, over the same formation, 60 or 70 miles 

 north of the gokl region. Hence might be derived some faint 

 hopes of finding the gold in native veins or beds; but still these 

 may have been in the " fountains of the great deep" that were 

 broken up. 



If we suppose that gold dust is universally derived from di- 

 luvial action on lumps of the same metal, it will account for 

 two well known facts ; — first, the very general diffusion of par- 

 ticles of gold among the sands of all countries; and, secondly, 

 the circumstance of many rivers that were anciently auriferous, 

 liaving now ceased to be so ; as the Tagus, l*o, and Pactolus 

 (Kirwan, Geological Essays, 4'02.) This author also adds, 

 that it ajipears by the testimony of Disdown that some of the 

 rivers of France were much more abundantly auriferous in 

 former ages than they are at present. The dust derived from 

 diluvial action may be conceived to be exhausted or washed 

 out in the course of ages, while there is now no process going 

 forward for supplying the waste. 



LXI. Notices 



