Doc. No. 9.] 75 



discrepency in the statements must exist, from the fact that veins which 

 pierce the granite are found to cut the stites also in the same section. 

 As in the case of the Centreville veins, these will be found to belong to 

 the more recent intrusions of these rocks, and wherever those features 

 occur the recent group will be found playing the part of a disturbing 

 agent on the primitive veins themselves and their investing rocks ; so 

 far as our experience goes in judging of the effects produced by these 

 recent intrusions, their influence is not an injurious 'one, for the recent 

 dike has thus far proved equally metalliferous with the primitive setts. 



CHARACTER AND POSITIONS OF THE OLDER VEINS BE 

 LOW THE SURFACE. 



Under this head will be concluded all that we have to say upon the 

 subject of gold mining in this State at the present time, and as the largest 

 proportion of the mines of the State are situated on the older group of 

 the quartz, the remarks that follow will be confined principally to that 

 serries. 



In the northern part of the State,* the granite rocks in which these 

 veins are situated upon the surface, have been found to be underlied 

 with another class of igneous rocks, which, from their nature and pre 

 sumed age, it was feared might have so disturbed the " setts" as to 

 render the successful prosecution of mining a doubtful project, and in 

 jurious speculation from this fact, have been indulged in to an extent 

 that at one time threatened to destroy the well merited confidence which 

 the discovery of these veins had induced from the outset ; and for this 

 reason no little degree of interest has been manifested both at home and 

 abroad in relation to their future prospects. 



Had those speculations which have been founded on presumptive evi 

 dence only, been confined to the sphere to which it legitimately belonged, 

 and divested of the over-anxious fears expressed and manifested from 

 abroad, the parties most directly interested would have suffered less in 

 convenience by loss of confidence and credit, which the voluntary con 

 servators of our good in distant lands have been the means of inducing, 

 and the public mind would have been unbiassed but for the opinions of men 

 who should have had more discretion than to have hazarded their repu 

 tation on such premature evidences as they must have been possessed of 

 at that time. 



it is scarcely a supposable case, that men thousands of miles distant 

 should be found adequate to judge correctly of the value of metaliferous 

 districts, having never seen the sections alluded to, or even before the 

 veins were known by the parties engaged in opening them. Elaborate 

 discussions based upon presumptive analogy, may subserve the purpose of 

 pleasing popular assemblies, but they will be found untenable and useless 

 often, when applied to practiacal and systematic operations. 



Mining exploration within the past eighteen months, has added much 

 to our information relative to the position of metallic veins of the State, 

 and the rocks with which they are associated. The granite series has 



* North of th Conumne Rirr. 



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