Gold Region of North Carolina. 7 



auriferous stratum, brought no one knows from whence, was 

 spread by the deluge over hill and valley, through an extent 

 of one thousand square miles, so that gold may be found in 

 greater or smaller quantity in any part of this area, the pre- 

 cious metal should be so accumulated on some points as to 

 form a mine — accumulated, for instance, for a quarter of a 

 mile along the bed of Meadow Creek in Cabarrus, in masses 

 weighing from twenty-seven pounds to the fraction of a 

 grain, in such quantity as to be worked to advantage, after 

 having been already explored for a term of twenty-eight 

 years. There is no conceivable mode of diluvial action that 

 would produce this combination of appearances. A gradu- 

 al rise of the waters is inconsistent with the transportation of 

 such masses of gold — a rapid current with its general distri- 

 ^ bution over the whole surface of the country. 



Mr. Rothe refers the gold, in part, to veins of quartz travers- 

 ing ranges oi^ secondary greenstone and greenstone slate, and 

 in part to an alluvial stratum created by a flood of waters 

 which broke over the Blue Ridge ; spread itself over the dis- 

 trict lying below ; tearing up and dispersing over the face of 

 the country the veins of quartz containing the precious met- 

 al ; and finally forced for itself a passage through the moun- 

 tains that form the Narrows, and so passed off to the sea. 



With regard to the existence of this alluvial formation, and 

 the hypotheses proposed to account for it, the following re- 

 marks may be offered. 



1. Of all the causes that have been called in to explain 

 the appearances presented by the surface of the globe, 

 there is perhaps none that has been more abused, than 

 this of currents and inundations. That these agents have 

 changed the surface of some countries, by covering them with 

 a stratum of foreign matter, there is sufficient evidence. But 

 before we assume the existence of a current, coming no one 

 knows whence, going no one knows whither, and urged on- 

 ward by a force as unaccountable as its origin and destina- 

 tion, we must be able to point out the traces of its ravages 

 along the whole line of its route. And what kind of appear- 

 ances may be expected where it is broad and deep, it is ea- 

 sy for any one to conceive who has read Mr. Dwight's well 

 written description of the effects produced by the eruption of 

 two small lakes in Vermont. The crests of hills will be 

 found torn off and transported into the neighboring vallies — 

 rocks dislodged from their native beds and deposited over 



