740 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 12 



passing through a field of talcose slate several 

 miles in breadth, whilst in others they are 

 sheathed only, as it were in the talcose slate, and 

 pass through a field of elvan and granite rocks of 

 various kinds/' If by this assertion, it is intended 

 to be implied that talcose slate is exclusively the 

 repository of the gold veins in the United States, 

 it is certainly at variance with general experience; 

 that this formation is favorable to the production of 

 gold, and that veins of that metal are frequently 

 found in it, will readily be admitted, the mines 

 of Virginia and some of those in Georgia are thus 

 situated, but nearly all those of North Carolina 

 and most of those in Georgia are found in a very 

 different rock: and no instance, I believe, of a gold 

 vein in granite has ever presenteded itself in this 

 or any other country; the small quantity of gold 

 found in Cornwall has always been obtained lirom 

 the formation, known in that country by the name 

 of killas. 



Our author appears to be a believer in the ex- 

 ploded doctrine, that the formation of metallic 

 veins is attributable to the ejection of mineral mat- 

 ter in a state of igneous fusion from the interior of 

 the earth; should the capitalists of Missouri be 

 induced, by a confidence in "the reasonableness 

 of the opinion that metallic veins have their ori- 

 gin from below," (p. 10) to enter with more spirit 

 into the business of mining, it would undoubtedly 

 be a benefit both to themselves and to their coun- 

 try; but should this be their only inducement, it 

 may be feared, that they will be discouraged in 

 the pursuit, when they discover that the most em- 

 inent geologists in this and other countries consid- 

 er that such a mode of their formation is far from 

 being satisfactorily established; if such however 

 is the opinion of Mr. F. he certainly has aright to 

 express it, but as it has been a controverted ques- 

 tion, some reasons for such a belief, more conclu- 

 sive than his arbitrary dictum, would perhaps 

 have been desirable in a work intended to be "per- 

 manently instruciive." 



Mr. F. does indeed refer to some circumstances 

 in a subsequent part of his work, which, he says, 

 "seem to point to a projection of mineral and me- 

 tallic matter from below." but, if we examine 

 these circumstances we shall not, I think, find in 

 them, any thing like an argument to support this 

 hypothesis. That the flat or horizontal veins 

 which he met with in the lead mines of Missouri, 

 are "lateral jets from the main lode," cannot be 

 doubted; but the position of the metal at the bot- 

 tom of the cavities or pockets which he describes, 

 is most satisfactorily accounted for by the suppo- 

 sition that it has percolated, whilst in a state of 

 fusion, through the soft matter of the red clay; for 

 the admission, that it was brought into this situa- 

 tion by a projection from below, would be a con- 

 tradiction of his own theory of their formation. 



From the Journal of the Franklin Institute. 

 REPORT IN RELATION TO A PROPOSED RAIL 

 ROAD FROM THE RIVER OHIO TO THE TIDE 

 WATERS OF THE CAROLINAS. 



The committee to whom was referred the sub- 

 ject of a railroad from the valley of the Ohio river 

 to the maritime coast of the Carolinas and Georgia. 

 having in a general manner considered its practi- 

 cability and advantages, beg leave to submit the 

 following report. 



The states which border on the Ohio, or are 

 watered by its great tributary streams, are wes- 

 tern or tramontane Pennsylvania and Virginia, 

 Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee; 

 nearly through the centre of which that river 

 flows, almost parallel with the sea coast of the old 

 southern states. From the seven states above 

 mentioned, there are highways of communication 

 with the ocean in but two directions — north-east, 

 and soul h- west. The former, consisting of seve- 

 ral distinct lines of river, canal, macadamized and 

 rail road communication, reaches the Atlantic 

 ocean between the west end of Long Island Sound 

 and the mouth of Chesapeake Bay — from New 

 York to Norfolk — a distance, on a straight line, of 

 300 miles. The latter communicates with the Gulf 

 of Mexico by the delta of the Mississippi. Be- 

 tween these two points of marine connection with 

 the interior, is a coast nearly 3000 miles in extent, 

 constituting the sea-board of southern Virginia, 

 North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Ala- 

 bama, and Mississippi, with which the states in 

 the valley of the Ohio have no direct communica- 

 tion, even by means of a good post-road, so that 

 the mail to the northern frontier of Georgia and 

 the Carolinas, not three hundred miles distant 

 from the banks of the Ohio, in a straight line, is 

 actually sent by Washington City, on a route 

 nearly four times as long. With that part of the 

 southern coast which lies west of the peninsula of 

 Florida, the Ohio states have ready intercourse, 

 by the Mississippi river; but with the region east 

 of that peninsula, they are destitute of all ade- 

 quate means of commercial and social connection. 

 Here then is a great desideratum, which can be 

 supplied in no other manner than by the contem- 

 plated rail road. 



Starting, perhaps from more than one point on 

 the Ohio river, in the state of Kentucky, this road 

 fchould stretch nearly south; and branching, when 

 it enters the Carolinas and Georgia, to reach their 

 tide-waters at several different places. Taking 

 Cincinnaii as a city intermediate between Mays- 

 vilie and Louisville, and Charleston as intermedi- 

 ate between Wilmington, in North Carolina, and 

 Augusta, in Georgia, the road might be said, more 

 especially, to connect Cincinnati and Charleston, 

 and may for convenience in this report, take its 

 length and designation from those cities. Starting 

 from the former, or rather, from the opposite bank 

 of the Ohio river, in Newport or Covington, it 

 would traverse the state of Kentucky to the Cum- 

 berland Gap, near the south-western angle of the 

 state of Virginia, then cross the state of Tennes- 

 see, and, ascending the valley of the French 

 Broad, in North Carolina, arrive at Greenville, or 

 some other point, in south Carolina, beyond the 

 Alleghany Mountains, whence it may pass down 

 to Augusta, in Georgia, by one branch, and by 

 another more immediately to Charleston, in the 

 direction of Columbia. In traversing North Car- 

 olina, it might with facility, the surface of the 

 country permitting, be connected by a lateral road, 

 with the projected Cape Fear and Yadkin rail- 

 way, which passing through Fayetteville, is to 

 terminate at Beaty's Ford, on the Catawba ri- 

 ver. 



The distance between Cincinnati and Charles- 

 ton, on a straight line, is about 500, which would 

 probably require a road of 700 miles. South Car- 

 olina, however, has already made a rail-way, 



