Gold Region of North Carolina. 1 7 



Parkersford. A similar clay slate is the lowest rock as we 

 descend the Neuse River, and from some indications in the 

 intervenmg country, I have been induced to suspect that it 

 is upon this rock that the sand immediately reposes in this 

 part of the state. 



Old red sandstone. — The only circumstance connected 

 with this formation to which I deem it important to call the 

 attention of geologists, is that after coming into contact with 

 the sand near Cape Fear river, it is gradually more and more 

 covered by it, till it finally disappears altogether. It is dis- 

 closed in the bed of Drownmg Creek, where the sand has 

 been removed by the action of the stream, and finally re- 

 appears in Richmond and Montgomery. The part of this 

 formation exhibited upon the map, produces by its decompo- 

 sition, a better soil than that which is firther north. Through- 

 out the state it is remarkable for the extent of the low grounds 

 upon the banks of its streams. It no where attams an ele- 

 vation of more than five Imndred or six hundred feet above 

 the level of the sea. 



Alluvial. — The peculiarities of this formation, existing up- 

 on the high grounds and wanting along the beds of the 

 streams, are exhibited m the district embraced by the map, 

 though perhaps not so strongly marked as in some other pla- 

 ces. It is not supposed that minute accuracy has been at- 

 tained in the delineation of its boundaries, but a fair repre- 

 sentation of the mode of its distribution is given. In every 

 department of science, we arrive at truth by a series of ap- 

 proximations. It is a curious circumstance, that the quarry 

 from which a considerable extent of country is supplied with 

 millstones, (McDaniel's) is on the bosom of the sand hills. 

 A fork of Hitchcock creek has uncovered a granite rock at 

 this place for a distance of from a quarter to half a mile in 

 its bed and along its bank, and from this they are taken. 

 Except directly down the creek, the sand is spread out for 

 miles in every direction. 



Of these different formations, the old red sandstone has 

 furnished a few minute particles of gold, collected in the bed 

 of Little river, aud apparently brought down from the slate 

 above, and the western division of the primitive, a small 

 quantity in the north eastern part of Rutherford county, 

 where the fragments of crystallized and tabular quartz scat- 

 tered over the surface indicate the existence of an auriferous 

 vein, but all the valuable mines are in the eastern division of 



Vol. XVI.— No. 1. 3 



