362 Intelligence and Miscellanies. 



would not bring one dollar per acre, were sold as high as thir- 

 ty dollars. 



" The gold is got out of the small streams, and is called 

 " Branch gold." Digging is generally commenced at the bed 

 of the streams, and continued on each side to the adjacent 

 hills. After the top earth and sand are removed, round flint 

 rocks (quartz ?) are found, such as usually occur in the bed 

 of streams.* Among this earth and sand, the gold is found 

 in particles from a very small size, to masses of two penny 

 weights. 1 understand it was thought that no gold was to 

 be found below this deposit of pebble and flint rocks; but 

 lately, after penetrating the layer of flint stones and pebbles, 

 the miners came to a bed of very fifie sand, varying in thick- 

 ness from six to twelve inches, and below this another depos- 

 it o{ round flint stone and pebbles, which is more abundant 

 in gold than the former. 



" The quantity of the precious metal collected since the 

 first of March, cannot be accurately ascertained ; but two 

 weeks ago, about one thousand hands were at work, avera- 

 ging each a dollar per day. New discoveries of gold are 

 daily making in this county, (Lincoln,) but our mines have " 

 not as yet proved so rich as those of Rutherford and Uurke 

 before mentioned. 



" Quicksilver has been found connected with the gold. I 

 had doubted this fact, though it had been repeatedly assert- 

 ed ; but this day, a man who can be relied on, and has wor- 

 ked at one of the mines in Burke,shewed me a smaU quantity 

 of quicksilver, which he asserted that he obtained at that 

 mine.t 



" Many exaggerated reports are put in circulation respect- 

 ing the value of the gold mines, with the view of enhancing 

 the price of land within that region ; but so fair are the real 

 motives for enterprize, that many of our most prudent and 

 wealthy citizens are making arrangements to enter largely in- 

 to the business. So eager are people to find large pieces of 

 gold, that they hurry through the process of washing in a 



* That is, probably, exhibitlnf; the appearance of having been worn by at- 

 trition — shewing that this peculiaiity marks (he deposit of gold here, as well as 

 in Oabarras. (See " Olmsted on the gold mines of N. Carolina," in this Journal, 

 Vol. IX.) The account here given, by a gentleman not at all interested in the 

 theories of these formations, appears to favor the opinion that they are deposits 

 from water, and not merely, (as Professor Mitchill has maintained in a late 

 Volume of this work) the result of a decomposition of the associated rocks. — 0. 

 1 Probably this was not of native origin. — O. 



