98 Remarks on the Gold Mines of Virginia. 



of that quiet and retiring race, which people the beds of our streams. 

 As the animal died, the valves of the shell opened, and decomposi- 

 tion commencing, the muscular adhesions gave way, and the fleshy 

 portion rose to the surface of the water, leaving the shell in the 

 bed of the stream. As these dead bodies floated down with the 

 current, the heads of islands, masses of fixed drift wood, and the 

 shores, in many places, were covered with them, tainting the air in 

 the vicinity with putrid effluvia. The cause of the disease amongst 

 the shelly race, remains as much a mystery, as that of the Asiatic 

 cholera amongst the human family. It might possibly have arisen 

 from the slight change made in the quality of the water, from the 

 addition of marine salt, from the numerous salt furnaces now in ope- 

 ration along the borders of the river, the bittern of which, and more 

 or less of the salt water, is daily mingling with the stream. Even 

 a slight change in their vital element, might produce disease and 

 death amongst molluscous animals ; as in the atmosphere, fatal dis- 

 eases fall upon man, from trifling contaminations. 

 Marietta, Jan. 2, 1837. 



Art. X. — Remarks on some of the Gold Mines, and on parts of 

 the Gold Region of Virginia, founded on personal observa- 

 tions, made in the months of August and September, 1836; by 



B. SlLLIMAN. 



As these remarks cannot lay claim to the character of a general 

 summary, (since they were founded on local, although somewhat 

 numerous observations,) perhaps there can be no better course, than 

 to give an abstract of some of the most itnportant reports that were 

 made on the occasion, to different mining companies. 



To those who are anxious to be correctly informed, this proce- 

 dure will afford a fair view of facts, as they were presented to the 

 eye of an actual observer and enquirer; while reference for more 

 general views may be had to the Report of the Geological Recon- 

 naissance of the State of Virginia, by Prof. William B. Rogers, and 

 to the more detailed account which may be given by that gentleman, 

 when his geological survey shall have been finished. 



Some details of topography and of machinery, and other local 

 facts, are preserved in these reports, because — although they may 



