Gold Mines of Georgia. 5 



It is easy to conceive that such substances as may be moved by any 

 of the disintegrating agents at a and b, would descend towards c, and 

 that d e and / would intercept a part of them. The greatest accu- 

 mulation, however, would be at c, as the side b may have no recep- 

 tacles as that of a has, owing to the face of the strata resisting the 

 agent better than that of the latter, which also may be more decom- 

 posed and easily so abraded as to form receptacles and undermine 

 veins at a. 



The gravel in these branch deposits, is composed of fragments 

 of quartz and such other rocks as occur in the immediate vicinity and 

 over it there is generally a bed of clay from one to five feet deep, 

 in which there are fragments of quartz with sharp angles. Besides 

 the deposits on rivers and branches, which have unequivocally resulted 

 from their mechanical agency, there are others, at present above the 

 levels of the sfrearas in the neighborhood. Their extent and the 

 fact that the gravel is frequently very much rounded, seem clearly to 

 indicate a force at least equal to that producing similar effects on the 

 Chestalee, but being covered with red clay like that over the branch 

 deposits, we are thus prevented from attributing the effect to its agen- 

 cy. If it were necessary to account for their formation by the river, 

 then we may suppose that the following process was pursued. 



Any stream having a bend as in Fig. 5, may abrade its banks ab c, 

 until it becomes nearly straight, making deposits similar to a Fig. 6 ; 

 and when it has attained the direction a d c, the greatest abrading ac- 

 tion of the water, will be on the bottom near the middle of the river, 

 and thus it will be cut deeper, leaving the deposits e e high and dry. 

 The very reverse of this may happen, for the nature of the strata in the 



