110 Remarks on the Gold Mines of Virginia. 



ate vicinity, as appears from the following facts, communicated to 

 me by persons of good information, although not by the parties 

 themselves. 



Tinder's mine lies about two miles northeast from that of Walton. 

 It has been explored, chiefly by surface diggings, and washings of 

 the gravel, &£c. The excavations of the surface are numerous and 

 extensive, and within four or five years they have obtained forty 

 thousand dollars, about seven thousand dollars of which was from a 

 single depot. A tract belonging to Jenkins and others, lies between 

 Walton's and Tinder's, and also immediately beyond the latter; from 

 the Jenkins tract, by working in a careful and economical way, they 

 obtain from two to three thousand dollars per annum, and Jenkins 

 is in the habit of substituting a fall-working in the gold, for which he 

 obtains one thousand dollars annually, as a compensation for his to- 

 bacco crop, which he relinquishes in favor of the gold. Within a 

 few days, they have discovered on Jenkins' land, a vein of quartz, 

 which is very rich in gold. A good observer, a master miner, in- 

 formed me, that he saw in this vein of quartz, pieces of gold project- 

 ing from it, as large as the first joint of a finger. In consequence of 

 this discovery, so much curiosity and cupidity have been excited, 

 that they have been compelled to inundate the vein, until measures 

 can be adopted for its adequate protection. At Boxley's, near Tin- 

 der's, they obtained, the first year, nine thousand dollars, and have 

 probably accumulated twice that amount of gold in the whole. At 

 Baker's, near Walton's, they gathered, with their own people, about 

 five or six hundred dollars in one year. At William Goodwin's, a 

 little south of the Walton Mine, they procured, with their own hands, 

 about one thousand dollars, and at Childs', one mile and a half south- 

 west, they got three hundred pennyweights. Thus it appears that 

 there is much gold in the immediate neighborhood of the Walton 

 Mine ; there are also many places not named above, and not far off, 

 where gold has been obtained by washing; and measures, as I am 

 informed, are about being taken, to open some other places in this 

 region, more effectually. 



These facts are of great value, as indicating that the tract now 

 ■under consideration must also be auriferous, and were its real char- 

 acter in this respect unknown, we could scarcely doubt that it must 

 resemble its neighbors. But we are not left to conjecture. Four 

 years have now elapsed since diggings and washings for surface gold 

 were commenced here upon three branches,, (small streams,) and the 



