23 



QUERY VI. 



A NOTICE of the mines and other subterraneous rich" 

 es ; its trees, plants, fruits, Sic ? 



I knew a single instance of gold found in this state. 

 It was interspersed in small specks through a lump of 

 ore, of about four pounds weight, which yielded seven- 

 teen penny weight of gold, of extraordinary ductility. 

 This ore was found on the north side of Rappahanoc, 

 about four miles below the falls. I never heard of any 

 other indication of gold in its neighbourhood. 



On the great Kanhaway, opposite to the mouth of 

 Cripple creek, and about twenty-five miles from our 

 southern boundary, in the county of Montgomery, are 

 mines of lead. The metal is mixed, sometimes with 

 earth, and sometimes with rock, which requires the force 

 of gunpowder to open it ; and is accompanied with a por- 

 tion of silver, too small to be worth separation under any 

 process hitherto attempted there. The proportion yielded 

 is from 50 to 801b. of pure metal from 1001b. of washed 

 ore. The most common is that of GO to the 1001b. The 

 veins are at sometimes most flattering ; at others they 

 disappear suddenly and totally. They enter the side of 

 the hill, and proceed horizontally. Two of them are 

 wrought at present by the public, the best of which is 100 



tells us, that on the other side there are always corresponding 

 cavities, and that these tally with the prominences so perfectly, 

 that, were the two sides to come together, they would fit in all 

 their indentures, without leaving any void. I think that this 

 does not resemble the effect of running water, but looks rather 

 as if the two sides had parted asunder. The sides of the break, 

 over which is the natural bridge of Virginia, consisting of a veiny 

 rock which yields to time, the correspondence between the salient 

 and re-entering inequalities, if it existed at all, has now disap- 

 peared. Tliis break has the advantage of the one described l)y 

 Don Ulloa in its finest circumstance ; no portion in that instance 

 having held together, during the separation of the other parts, so 

 as to form a bridge over the abyss. 



