t 
6 Olmsted on the Gold Mines of North Carolina. 
novaculite, or whetstone slate, and also beds of petrosili- 
ceous porphyry and of greenstone. These last lie over the 
rgillite, either in detache blocks, or in strata that are in- 
med at a lower angle than that. This ample field of 
si I had supposed to be the peculiar repository of the 
gold ; but a personal examination discovered that the pre- 
yaerectin Foe description of the gold country, would 
present little that is interesting. The soil is generally bar- 
ren, and the inhabitants are mostly poor and felon 
The traveller passes the day without meeting with a single 
striking or beautiful object, either of nature or of art, to 
vary the tiresome monotony of forests and sandhills, and 
ridges of gravelly quartz. Here and there a log hut or 
cabin, s gato by a few acres of corn and cotton, marks 
the little improvement which has been made by man, ina 
region singularly endowed by nature. The road is gen-_ 
erally conducted along the ridges, which slope on either 
hand into vallies of moderate depth, consisting chiefly of 
fragments of quartz, either strewed coarsely over the. 
round, or so comminuted as to form gravel; these ridges 
oi an appearance of great natural sterility, which, more- 
over, is greatly aggravated by the ruinous practice of fre- 
uently burning over the forests, so as to consume ail the 
leaves and under-growth, giving'to the forest the aspect of 
an artificial grove. 
he principal mines are three—the Anson mine, Reed’s 
mine, and Parker’s mine. 
The Anson Mrve is situated in the county of the same 
name, on the waters of Richardson’s creek, a branch of 
Rocky river. This locality was discovered only two 
years since by a “ gold hunter,’’—one of an order of peo- 
ple, that begin already to be accounted a distinct race. A 
rivulet winds from north to south between two gently slo- 
ping hills that emerge towards the south. The bed of the 
stream, entirely covered with gravel, is left almost naked 
during the dry scason, which period is usually selected by 
the miners for their operations. On digging from three to 
six feet into this bed, the workman comes to that peculiar 
