THE PIEDMONT REGION. 135 



all of these mines. With rare exceptions, if any, it was never 

 systematically conducted, as may be inferred from Mr. Tuomey's 

 description of the Brewer mine, which was leased to twenty or thirty in- 

 dependent companies, numbering three to six persons each, and having 

 each a portion equal to about twelve feet square of the surface. 



From the returns of the 10th U. S. Census it appears that besides 

 minor minerals, to the value of $27,709, South Carolina produced in 1879 

 of gold $13,040 ; ranking in the order of production of this metal 

 fifteenth among all the States, and third among the States east of 

 Dakota 



Gold occurs in South Carolina : 



I. In numerous gravel deposits. Of these, one class occur in beds of 

 rounded and water-worn pebbles and gravel, showing that the material 

 has been transported from a distance. Other deposits are found among 

 angular fragments of rocks, and these, in some instances, have been 

 traced back to the neighboring rocks, from which they were derived. 



II. In silicious veins of three leading types, viz. : 



1st. The " Carolina group " of crystaline quartz veins. The upper part 

 of the vein abounds with iron pyrites. The gold is in coarser grains and 

 more abundant above. In descending, the vein contracts and the gold 

 lessens in quantity. At the same time copper makes its appearance and 

 increases steadily in quantity so far as followed, and with the copper is 

 frequently associated ores of manganese, lead and silver. These veins 

 extend from the itacolumite above, down through the clay, talc and mica 

 slates into the underlying gneiss. They are most productive of gold in 

 traversing the talc slates. Of this type was the neighboring Reid mine, 

 of North Carolina, famous for having yielded a nugget of twenty-eight 

 pounds, and another of eighty pounds, and of which Lieber writes ; " I 

 question if any one spot in California or Australia ever produced as much 

 gold." 



2d. The saccharoid veins of a fine granular quartz, resembling powdered 

 sugar. Only traces of these veins are found in the itacolumitic rocks, 

 and none in the clay slate. They have their greatest productiveness in 

 the talc slates, becoming less so as they descend through the mica slates 

 to the underlying gneiss. 



3d. The hornstene lenticular veins, irregular, wedge-shaped, detached 

 quartz veins, having sometimes very rich pockets. They are found only 

 in the talc slates. 



III. In gold-bearing beds of the slate rock itself. These auriferous 

 beds are found only in ihe talc slate, save in one instance in the overly- 

 ing clay slate. The following diagram, after Lieber, showing the relative 



