22 MIxNTERALOGY AND LITHOLOGY. 



[. G( 



Gold is a metal which, though widely distributed in New Hampshire, 

 is not very often to be seen, since it has generally been found to exist in 

 very minute scales or combined in sulphurets. The knowledge of the 

 probability of its presence has led to the most careful search, and to its 

 detection long ago in Canaan and Lisbon. From Canaan Dr. Jackson 

 first obtained two recognizable spangles of gold by carefully washing 

 2,000 grains of the quartz powder. It is also found, by assaying, in the 

 pyrites of the same place. The most promising gold assay that I have 

 seen, is one made by myself upon an arsenical ore from Crook & Brown's 

 mine in Lyman. The assay yielded 20 ounces of silver and 2.5 ounces of 

 gold to the ton. Several other so-called gold ores were assayed at the 

 same time, but with negative results, so far as proving them to be ores 

 workable for gold. The appearance of these ores was certainly such as 

 to excite suspicion of the presence of gold, and to make them well worthy 

 of assay ; but when such promising appearances are really so deceptive, 

 all owners of such property cannot be too careful in the investment of 

 means for working the claims. The assay mentioned shows the possi- 

 bility of the discovery of workable deposits in our state. Productive gold 

 mines have been operated at points on our coast from Canada to Georgia; 

 but the history of gold mining in our section shows the necessity for 

 much caution. 



Beside the gold contained in veins, the alluvial deposits over the whole 

 course of the Connecticut river are liable to contain a little gold. Prof. 

 Hitchcock has obtained it by washing the deposits at Hanover, and Mr. 

 Huntington found it on the northern boundary of the state. At Pope's 

 mine, which is over the boundary in Canada, pieces have been found that 

 weighed two grains. The region, however, that has excited the most 

 attention, is the so-called Ammonoosuc gold field. This field was first 

 reported on by Prof. Wurtz.* It contains gold not only in the alluvium, 

 but also in the quartz veins in the rock. In Lyman specimens are found 

 in which the gold is sprinkled through the quartz in grains that are visible 

 to the naked eye, and in these veins it was first discovered. It is com- 

 monly accompanied in the quartz veins by ankerite and galena. Lisbon, 



* A>fi. Jour. Mining, Sept. 12, i863. 



