FARMERS' REGISTER-ON THE CHEAT CONTROVERSY. 



407 



be ricli in ffold, and well worth working; as may 

 be seen ii-oin the lblKnvin,<r extract of Mr. Milling- 

 ton's Report. "It may therefore be fairly inferred 

 that if the exj)erimcnt had been belter and more 

 accurately conducted, and made on a larger scale, 

 each |)oimd weight of average ore Avould have 

 yielded one grain of gold, or at the rateof five pen- 

 nyweights to the hundred pounds weight of ore, 

 Avhich is much more than the probable, or indeeil 

 possible cost of working the mines, — as we con- 

 ceive that could in no case amount to so nuich as 

 one dollar upon the hundred jionnds w-eighl." 

 I remain yours very respectfully. 



F. SHEPHERD. 



From the Journal of Commorcc. 



GEOLOGICAL, DHSCRIPTIOX OF THE GOLD RE- 

 GION OF VIRGirCIA. 



Stafford County, Va. Oct. 7tli, 1S3 1. 



In passing from tide water to the Blue Ridge, 

 the Avhole country is undulating, consisting of lulls 

 of moderate elevation, intersected with vallies or 

 rather ravines of moderate depth. The soil for 

 the most part is composed of bright red clay, 

 Ifighly colored vvdth the oxide of iron, and formed 

 from the decomposition of vertical lamiuEe of Tal- 

 cose slate or schist. As you approach the metali- 

 ftirous veins, this red clay becomes intermixed 

 with fragments of quartz, comminted by the ac- 

 tion of the atmosphere, and mechanically spread 

 upon the surface for some distance, by the action 

 of the reins and ploughing, and the like, from year 

 to year. At the distance of sometimes a few inch- 

 es, and sometimes a few feet below the surface of 

 this bright red soil, is found the talc or talcose slate, 

 generally of a greenish grey color, soapy to the 

 touch, and of a greasy lustre. This rock is the 

 Talkschiefer of Germany, and is commonly known 

 throughout the world, in gold mining districts, as 

 gold slate, or as the slate peculiar to gold regions. 

 It is composed of magnesia, from 30 to 40 percent., 

 silex from 50 to 60 per cent., and oxide of iron, 

 allumuie and sulphur, hi small and varible propor- 

 tions. 



The leaves or laminae of this slate are vertical, 

 and often intermixed with iron pjrites, containing 

 gold in a foliated form, very nmch like thick gold 

 leaf. These iron pyrites are generally richer in 

 gold, when found in the slate alongside of a quartz 

 vein. The quartz \'eins are vertical walls of white 

 flint, containing oxide of iron, and frequently iron 

 pyrites and specular oxide of iron beautifully crys- 

 talized. 



The diameter of the quartz vems, varies from 

 the fourth part of an inch to six or eight feet. All 

 these veins are found between and parallel to the 

 layers of slate, and extend longitudinally in a di- 

 rection 41i- degrees North East. Sometimes 

 the gold is found in quartz veins, in large masses, 

 and sometimes distributed through the same in 

 fine grains, and hidden, as it were, by the oxide 

 of iron. Frequently specimens of this kind are 

 rich when no gold is externally visible. Some- 

 times the large or main vein is found to be rich, 

 and then again, the gold is absent from it altoge- 

 ther. In such cases, the gold is generally found 

 in parallel thread veins frequently at some distance 

 from the large or priucipi.J vein. Some;,imes these 



veins dip like coal strata, and pass under rivers 

 and rise again; and again they are cut asunder by 

 streams, and the rocks of the vein broken or 

 ground to sand, by attrition, the golil washed tlown 

 the stream in grains, and overspread with gravel. 

 As these grains of gold are indestructible, they 

 are not unfrequently carried by currents and floods 

 down into secondary regions, where they assist in 

 fbrmingnew sandstone, conglomerate, and the like. 

 These deposites of gokl are often very rich, and 

 much of the gold of Virginia is obtained, by care- 

 fully washing the sand found at the bottom of the 

 gravel in the streams and low grounds. 



Other metals are usually associated Avith the 

 gold in the veins and in the slate. I have never 

 fiiiled to find a greater or less poition of sih-er. I 

 have also in some instances, found copper and 

 blennde, antimony and galena. In many inslances 

 the sulphm-et oi' iron or hepatic pyrites may be 

 said to be the dwelling place of the gold. ♦ 



This v/hole gold region is based upon granite, and 

 evidently belongs to that formation, which Pro- 

 fessor Jjlumerdiach denominates the second class 

 of primitive rocks. As yet I have not di>icovered 

 that they contain any organic remains. Very re- 

 specfully, yours, 



F. SHEPHilKD. 



OIV THE CHEAT COKTROVERSY. 



To tlie Editor of llie Farmers' Rcgislur. 



My present purpose is, perhaps a very thank- 

 less one; for should it prove successful, I shall de- 

 prive our brother agriculturists of a most prolific 

 source of contention and wordy warfare; wliich, 

 strange to say, is often of as angry a character, as 

 any that the bitterest politicians ever v/age against 

 each other: I mean the apparently endless dispute 

 about the convertibility of" wheat into cheat. But 

 the spirit moveth me to the undertaking, and I 

 will proceed; being willing to submit it entirely to 

 the better judgement of yourself and your sub- 

 scribers to decide, whether he who attempts to 

 appease and to terminate strife, is not, in fact, a 

 very ill-natured man;inasnmch as he does, (should 

 his design be accomplished) deprive others of all 

 pretext lor doing that which must be a great grati- 

 fication to them, or they would not continue to do 

 it. In performing this seemingly hopeless task, it 

 is not my mtention to furnish a solitary fact appli- 

 cable to the controversy, because we have already 

 before us thousands of what are called and con- 

 sidered facts of entirely opposite, and even con- 

 tradictory character — adduced too, by as veracious 

 men as any in our community; so that our hopes 

 from these, so far as yet supplied, may truly be said 

 to be utterly liiUacious. This may possibly appear 

 a very extraordinary declaration on the part of one 

 professing such a design as I do; but a little reflec- 

 tion will satisfy any considerate man, that this 

 curious dispute may last to the end of the world, 

 unless some other mode can be devised for ending 

 it, than any which has yet been promulgated — 

 that onl}- excepted, whlcla you and your friends 

 tried and published some time ago, and which, as 

 far as I recollect, is the only one well calculated to 

 attain its object. Had you added only a few more 

 particular notices, you would have made your ex- 

 periment so complete, as not to leave the shadow 

 of doubt on the minds of anv, but that class of 

 incurablv ciedulous mortals, who can believe that 



