Gold Veins of the United States^ Mine, Va. 327 



and again comes into its former line of bearing. Above this deflec- 

 tion, the course of the vein in the forty foot level is continuous and 

 there does not appear to have been any interruption in its angle of 

 inclination, or in its line of bearing. 



The other veins have an average thickness greater than that of 

 No. 1. They are walled up near the surface in red clay, a perpen- 

 dicular escarpment of which shows a succession of black lines or 

 seams, in the regular order of stratification. Suppose a bed of gneiss 

 to be converted, without undergoing the process of disintegration, 

 into a mass of clay, or red earth, and that the lines showing the 

 stratification of the gneiss were to assume a blackish hue, and be re- 

 tained in the clay, and you would have a formation similar to that 

 of which I am now writing. Disseminated through this clay, are 

 numerous uniriturated and angular fragments of translucent quartz, 

 the largest of them attaining to the weight of only a few grains. 



Veins Nos. 2. and 3. are parallel or nearly so ; their general course 

 is N. by E ; they dip to the east. No. 2. at an angle of 30° with 

 a perpendicular. No. 3. is nearly perpendicular from the surface 

 to the depth of twenty five or thirty feet ; while at the depth of 

 sixty feet it has a very great underlay, declining from a perpendicu- 

 lar at an angle of near 60°. 



The two veins are about one hundred feet apart; The country 

 between them at the depth of sixty feet, is very soft, not being firmer 

 than quicksands. - The angle of inclination of No. 2. is quite uni- 

 form. At the sixty foot level, instead of red clay, the veins are 

 contained in decomposed gneiss, which retains its color and texture, 

 but is quite friable, yielding as readily as the clay, to the pick. A 

 shaft has been sunk perpendicularly on No. 3. vein to the depth of 

 twenty five or thirty feet ; in this the vein declines from a perpen- 

 dicular at a very small angle, say 5° ; immediately under this shaft, 

 in the sixty foot level, the vein inclines at an angle of 45°. I shall 

 not offer at this time any conjecture as to this anomaly in the dip 

 of veins. When the ore between the sixty foot level and the sur- 

 face, is taken down, this very great underlay will doubtless be found 

 to commence at, or near, the junction of the gneiss with the superin- 

 cumbent clay. Circumstances which will throw more light on the 

 subject may be then brought to view. Could it have been that the 

 soft country, or quick sands alluded to, were not sufficiently firm 

 and compact to support the vein in its nearly perpendicular position, 

 and that for the want of proper support, it has fallen down as it 



