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6 Olmsted on the Gold Mines of North Carolina. 



novaculite, or whetstone slate, and also beds of petrosili- 

 ceoas porphyrj and of greenstone. These last He over the 

 argiliite, either in detached blocks, or in strata that are in- 

 clined at a lower angle than that. This ample field of 

 slate, I had supposed to be the peculiar repository of the 

 gold ; but a personal examination discovered that the pre- 

 cious metal, embosomed in the same peculiar stratum of 

 mud and gravel, extends be^'ond the slate on the west, 

 spreading, in the vicinity of Concord, over a region of gra- 

 nite and gneiss. 



A geographical description of the gold country, would 

 present little that is interesting. The soil is generally bar- 

 ren, and the inhabitants are mostly poor and ignorant. 

 The traveller passes the day without meeting with a single 

 striking or beautiful object, either of nature or of art, to 

 vary the tiresome monotony of forests and sandhills, and 

 ridges of gravelly quartz. Here and there a log hut or 

 cabin, surrounded bv a few acres of corn and cotton, marks 

 the little improvement which has been made by man, in a 

 region singularly endowed by nature. The road is gen- 

 erally conducted along the ridges, which slope on either 

 hand into vallies of moderate depth, consisting chieflv of 

 fragments of quartz, either strewed coarsely over the 

 ground, or so cotriminuted as to form gravel ; these ridges 

 have an appearance of great natural sterility, which, more- 

 over, is greatly aggravated by the ruinous practice of fre- 

 quently burning over the forests, so as to consume all the 

 leaves and under-growth, giving to the forest the aspect of 

 an artificial grove. 



The principal mines are three— the Anson mine. Reed's 

 mine, and Parker's mine. 



Tlje Anson Mine is sitaated in the county of the same 

 name, on the waters of P;,ichardson's creek, a branch of 

 Rocky river. This locality was discovered only two 

 years since by a " gold hunter," — one of an order of peo- 

 ple, that begin already to be accounted a distinct race. A 

 rivulet winds from north to south between two gently slo- 

 ping hills that emerge towards the south. The bed of the 

 stream, entirely covered with gravel, is left ahnost naked 

 durin^:; the dry season, which period is usually selected by 

 the miners for th.eir operations. On digging from three to 

 six feel into this bed, the workman comes to that peculiar 



