United States'' Gold Mine, 183 



body seen from different distances, seem to me to be incompatible 

 with the appearance of the zodiacal light, at different periods of the 

 year, as stated by Domenico Cassini, after a long and unremitted 

 series of observations ; but I leave this point of discussion to others, 

 and confine myself to thanking Mr. Olmsted for having so carefully 

 collected and stated the evident elements of so curious a phenome- 

 non. The universal interest which M. Arago has obtained for it by 

 publications relative to the voyage of the Bonite, will doubtless mul- 

 tiply the characteristic elements of its appearance ; and the analogy 

 of these facts, with those which have already occupied M. Valz, of 

 Marseilles, makes us hope, that their affinity with the spots on the 

 Sun, and the possible expansions of the solar nebula, will henceforth 

 be studied with as much skill as correctness." 



6. United States^ Gold Mine near Fredericksburgh, F'ui 



To those who wish information respecting this valuable mine, the 

 following minutes made on the spot by the editor, (August 30, 1836,) 

 may perhaps be of some use, and the proprietors will, we trust, not 

 consider them obtrusive, since, although they are imperfect, it is be- 

 lieved that they are correct, and may promote the interests of those 

 concerned. 



This mine is in Spotsylvania County, twelve miles from Fredericks- 

 burgh by the road — fifteen by the river Rappahannock, upon which 

 it lies. The rock is generally a slate, between argillite and mica 

 slate. The new shaft, already sunk down one hundred feet, and to 

 go down one hundred and fifty, is in a very hard rock — ^almost like 

 a granular quartz, or resembling a siliceous slate, but not so compact ; 

 a steam engine is used for draining the mine. The strata have a 

 high inclination ; on the opposite side of the river they are vertical, 

 and here decline about 30 degrees from the perpendicular. The 

 surface of the ground is formed in rounded or rolling hills with large 

 curves and deep valleys watered by streams; still, the country is not 

 mountainous. The gold vein is quartz lying between the layers of 

 rock and partaking of its inclination ; the thickness of the vein varies 

 from one inch to one foot — two feet, or more ; the quartz is com- 

 pact, but is divided or divisible, like the slate, into rhomboidal frag- 

 ments. 



Condition of the gold. — In metallic spangles and points dissemin- 

 ated in the quartz, often visible to the naked eye ; pieces rarely large, 

 and more generally concealed entirely in the quaYtz. 



