502 



FARMERS' REGISTER— GOLD MINES OF VIRGINIA. 



An extract of a note received from Col. Wm. Ro- 

 bards of the 4th inst. is as follows: " Yield yes- 

 terday 2,735 dwt. in the amal<;-ain. One panfull 

 of two quarts of the grave! frave 125 dwts. This 

 morninsi; one panfull of sand (the washin<!,s of yes- 

 terday) 105 dwfs.II The prospect good for to- 

 day's work." 



The latent wealth of our state you sec, my dear 

 sir, we have been ignorant of. 



Your friend, ' p. scai>es. 



GOLD ailN'E CHARTERS. 



The reader of the legislative proceedings will 

 be struck with the number of petitions for char- 

 ters, from those who propose to search for gold, in 

 the gold regions of Virginia. 



The fact'is undoubted, that the counties of Staf- 

 ford, Culpeper, Orange, Spottsylvania, Louisa and 

 Goochland, contain a region richer in this precious 

 metal, than perhaps any quarter of the globe. 

 Rich as Virginia was ever known to be in almost 

 every gift of a bountiful nature, the abundance of 

 gold in her bowels, and that too in the cismontane 

 regions of the state, is a fact comparatively new, 

 and farther illustrative of the eminent liberality of 

 nature to her. 



Induced V)y indications of the extreme richness 

 of the veins of this precious metal which pervade 

 the counties mentioned above, gentlemen , in various 

 places, have associated themselves (or the jjurpose 

 of mining, and have applied to the General Assem- 

 bly, for charters of incorporation. These gentle- 

 men for the most part, are inhabitants and Virgi- 

 nians — of known worth, character and capital. 



The arguments in favor of granting their ai)pli- 

 cations are, (to sum them in a few words) 1. 'I'hat 

 the General Assembly have recognized the princi- 

 ple, and cannot, without good reason, refuse to na- 

 tive citizens what has been granted to others, and, 

 in some cases, to citizens of another state, 



•2. That the general objections to corporations, 

 iipply with diminished force to these. 



3. That they employ numerous hands, and ex- 

 pend large sums of money in their respective 

 riieighborhoods, to the stimulation of industry, in- 

 .crease of profitable employment, and diffusion of 

 comfort. 



4. That individual enterprise is unequal to devel- 

 oping the mineral wealth of our state, which must 

 be developed by corporate and united means, or re- 

 main in the recesses of the earth. 



To these strong arguments, some gentlemen op- 

 pose an undefniable terror of corporations, and 

 particularly insist upon that feature of all corpora- 

 tions, which exempts the individual corporator 

 from pecuniary responsibility for the act of the cor- 

 poration. This latter objection strikes at the soul 

 of all corporations — (if they have a soul,) at least 

 at the vital principle — and cannot, with any pro- 

 priety, be urged after the state has granted many 

 hundreds of charters, for various purposes, in all of 

 which the principle is recognized. 



In no case, perhaps, is the contingency of the 

 corporation contracting debts which they will be 

 unable to pay, less to be feared, than in those cases 

 to which we have had reference — expenses to labor- 

 ers must be met weekly, or monthly, in most cases^ 

 and the machinery, the principal expense, must be 

 paid lor in cash, or by acceptances of the highest 

 jnercantile credit. [/?>. 



PROSPECTS OF GOLD MIXING IN VIRGINIA. 



From the Richmond Whig. 



The author of the following letter is a gentle- 

 man of much theoretical and practical knowledge 

 in the matters of which he treats, and has been en- 

 gaged in the superintendence of minnig operations 

 in Mexico, Brazil, and the Ural Mountains in Rus- 

 sia, and also in the United States. 



To the Editors of the Whig. 



3fesfirs. Editors, — Having noticed in the Rich- 

 mond Enquirer of the 14th inst., a letter from Mr. 

 Featherstonhaugh to Mr. Madison, on the subject 

 of the mineral resources of the Slate of Virginia, 

 in which, with the intelligence and science, for 

 whicli Mr. F. has so deservedly obtained a high 

 reputation in Europe and the United Slates, some 

 striking and important views are presented for con- 

 sideration; I have felt induced to request your 

 indulgence while in a kw remarks. I offer the 

 opinion of one who has passed many years of his 

 life in the operations of mining, in countries where 

 those matters are carried on to an extent unparal- 

 leled in the annals of human industry. 



xVs a transient visiter I ha\e lately passed some 

 time in llie gold region of this state. Report which 

 has spoken so favoralily of the mining prospects of 

 that section, induced me to examine critically the 

 developments in progress with the view of ascer- 

 taining how far the belief was warranted that there 

 did exist gold veins, which would ultimately re- 

 ward those enterprising individuals who have appa- 

 rently with many struggles and difficulties, the 

 necessary consequences of their want of skill and 

 caj)ital, applied themselves to the working of the 

 gold veins of Virginia. 



It is a fact long known, that iron and gold are 

 the metals most universally disseminated through- 

 out all created things, animate and inanimate. Gold 

 is found in almost every country of the world, from 

 Sumatra to Iceland, from Siberia to the tropical 

 climes of South America. It is not, however, 

 generally met with in sufficient quantity to render 

 it an object of research and interest to miners. 



Tiic important point, then, it would appear to 

 me, that remains to be ascertained is whether the 

 gold veins of Virginia, where the outcrop is exhi- 

 i)ited or. the surface are such as can be compared 

 with analogous veins in Mexico and the Brazils. 

 The greater part of the gold of the Brazils has been 

 obtained from the alluvial washings ; within late 

 years, those alluvial washings or deposites of gold 

 have been traced to their source. It has been dis- 

 covered and fully established that they originated 

 in veins of gold at no great distance from the allu- 

 vial deposites of the precious metal — -the debris 

 and siiattercd fragments of the outcrop of the gold 

 veins, having in the course of ages been slowly 

 imbedded .under the alluvial strata of the country. 



All these fcatui'es are presented in the gold re- 

 gions of this State. Rich alluvial washings of 

 gold are developed, the veins from whence they 

 originate have been traced and laid open. The ore 

 of those veins cojitains large amounts of gold dif- 

 fused throughout the mass. In the Brazils unpre- 

 cedented success has attended the opening by capi- 

 talists of those discovered veins. 



Although it may be difficult precisely to decide 

 what may exist at the depth of three hundred feet 

 below the surface by mere superficial examinatioii 



