Gold Veins of the United States^ Mine, Va. 329 



minerals of those veins, excepting the iron, are wanting here. The 

 cubes of sulphurei of iron, in the middle of compact (externally) 

 masses of gangue, have slowly yielded to the action of a destroying 

 cause ; their materials have gradually assumed a gaseous or more 

 subtile form, and by permeation, or some other mysterious process, 

 they have passed off, leaving a stain of iron upon the quartz, and 

 oftentimes a spangle of gold glittering in the cubical cell which the 

 pyritous crystal formerly filled : sometimes the interior of the rock 

 is completely honeycombed by these em.pty cells. This vein has 

 not been extensively explored. It dips at an angle of 45°, and like 

 Nos. 2 and 3 is found passing through a stratified red earth, that 

 contains numerous angular fragments of translucent quartz. The, 

 sulphate of baryta is one of the associated minerals of vein No. 1. 



These veins, striking on different courses, and dipping at various 

 angles and in different directions, cross each other at several points, 

 forming thereby a sort of veinous net-work over the company's lands. 

 Such is the character of retiform deposits, whether the veins be 

 true, or contemporaneous veins. And such is the tendency of the 

 veins at several other mines which I have visited. ^The establish- 

 ment of the fact, whether or not the gold region be a retiform de- 

 posit, would be an important point gained in the economy of gold 

 mining in this country. This is a task which belongs to others, and 

 to them I shall leave it. ° 



Parallel to the "gold belt" of Virginia, and running along its east- 

 ern borders, is a deposit of iron ore, which is not second to the gold 

 region, either in value or importance. The ore is a brown hematite, 

 of superior quality. It yields an excellent gray iron. Previous to 

 the Revolution, several furnaces were supplied from it, but almost 

 the only record which we have of their existence is found in their 

 ruins ; the piles of scoria, the extensive forests of second growth, 

 numerous excavations, and mounds of earth, are the only monuments 

 which tell of their former operations and prosperity. The beds 

 were mined in a very loose way, and the ore extracted does not ob- 

 viously lessen its abundance. The deposit passes with the gold belt 

 out of the state, and perhaps continues with it throughout its range. 



It is not improbable, that upon examination, the geological posi- 

 tion of the coarser but more useful metal, with regard to the more 

 precious, will be found useful in an economical point of view. The 

 field of my observations is a small one, but I do not know of any 

 mine of " vein gold" to the east of the iron range. There are sev- 



VoL. XXXII.— No. 1. 42 



