Gold Region of North Carolina. 1 1 



long been known to geologists. The only remarks which it 

 will be necessary for me to make respecting them, relate to 

 their separation into two distinct formations — the more an- 

 cient lying farthest west, adjacent to the transition of Ten- 

 nessee, and occupying the greater part of the counties of 

 Ashe, Burke, Buncomb, Haywood, Lincoln and Stokes and 

 the whole of Surrey, Wilkes and Rutherford — the more re- 

 cent extending through the midland counties. Person, Cas- 

 well, Rockingham, Orange, Guilford, Davidson, Rowan, Ire- 

 dell, Cabarrus and Mecklenburg. A belief in the propriety 

 of this separation was induced in the first instance by an ob- 

 servation of the wide difference in the structure and general 

 appearance of the rocks of the two districts. Those of the 

 western division are highly crystalline in their structure, and 

 consist of gneiss ; of which there are many varieties, (it is 

 often porphyritic ; that having hornblende instead of mica ; 

 between the leaves — gneissoid hornblende rock of Eaton is 

 common,) mica slate, hornblende slate, and some granite. 

 I cannot get clear of the opinion that these are some of the 

 very oldest rocks upon the continent. I endeavored for a 

 long time to ascertain, if not the order of their superposition, 

 at least the mode of their distribution over the surface of the 

 country, and the boundaries by which the different species 

 and varieties are separated from each other, but at length 

 found them in a number of places alternating with each oth- 

 er in so many different ways, and in such quick succession, 

 that I was induced to give it up as a hopeless task. Those 

 of the western division, on the other hand, are almost exclu- 

 sively granite, (understanding this word in the extensive 

 sense in which it is used by Maculloch, as meaning a rock 

 having hornblende as well as mica for one of its ingredients,) 

 having very little tendency to stratification, and a dull, earthy 

 appearance, indicating a recent origin. It is difficult to 

 convey, by a description, an accurate idea of the difference 

 between them, but any person who has seen them placed 

 side by side, will acknowledge that they must have been 

 formed either at different aeras or under different circum- 

 stances. To the original argument for separation founded 

 on the diversity of appearance and constitution in the rocks, 

 the following have since been added. 



1. The western division throughout the greater part of its 

 extent (except along the streams, where there are valuable 

 bodies of good land.) exhibits a soil of only moderate fertili- 



