50 Gold of ihe CaroVnim. 



thorax. From the time the eggs were deposited to tlie period of 

 Jiatching, was, as nearly as could be ascertained, sixty days, and al- 

 most daily attention was given to the subject. When first placed in 

 the twigs, the eggs are about the sixteenth of an inch in length, and 

 the thickness of a coarse hair, appearing through a small magnifying 

 glass of the shape and size of a grain of rye : at the period of hatch- 

 ing, they had increased about one-tliird in size. They are white and 

 transparent, with a black spot on the larger end, just before hatch- 

 ing. They are placed very closely by the side of each other, in an 

 oblique direction to the line of the twig; several portions of the 

 branch of an apple tree, full of the eggs ready to hatch, were placed 

 on a bowl of earth, with a glass tumbler inverted over them, in the 

 afternoon ; by morning nearly a hundred young cicada were found 

 in the earth, and a few on the surface, who had just left their woody 

 cells. They were about a twelfth of an inch in length, with the ex- 

 act shape, color and appearance of the parent when she first comes 

 to the air, and before bursting the transparent shell which covered 

 her while in her terrene abode. From the fact, that the young ones 

 immediately seek a retreat in the earth, I am led to believe that these 

 insects are tenants of the ground for seventeen years, and until He 

 who created them again calls them forth to propagate their kind, to 

 fulfil their destiny, and die. As to their extent, so far as I can as- 

 certain, they covered the woody regions from beyond the shores of 

 the Mississippi, to the heads of the Ohio river ; embracing the States 

 of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and the western parts of Penn- 

 sylvania. Whether they appeared in Kentucky and Tennessee, I 

 have not yet learned. 



Marietta, (Ohio,) 20th Dec. 1829. 



Art. VI. — The Gold of the CaroUnas in Talcose Slate ; by Prof. 



Eaton. 



TO THE EDITOH. 



It may appear arrogant for one, who was never in the Carolinas, 

 to give an opinion on the subject of the geological associations of the 

 gold of that district, after reading the elaborate statements of Profes- 

 sors Olmsted and Mitchell, and of the practical miner, Mr. Rothe. 

 But, since these gentlemen, though learned, and indefatigable in their 

 inquiries, do not agree in opinion, the subject is still open for discus- 

 sion. I claim nothing, but the right to state facts. 



