JVorth Carolina and Tennessee. 9 



remains of art found here, I will mention some relics discovered 

 in Habersham. From Richardson's deposit, not far from Yeona 

 mountain, there were taken out of the washed mass hundreds of 

 Gun flints, perfect and beautifully fashioned ; they are very large, 

 and Dr. Troost says of French manufacture ; I presented him one for 

 his museum. Lately out of another deposit a small vessel in form 

 of a skillet, was dug up at the depth of fifteen- feet. It is a com- 

 pound of tin and copper with a trace of iron, and this it is said by 

 the;°assayer Dr. Troost, is an evidence of its antiquity. A stone 

 wall remains on the top of Yeona mountain ; it exhibits the angles 

 of a fortification, and guards the only accessible points of ascent 

 to the top. Timbers in the Cherokee Country bearing marks of 

 the axe have been taken up at the depth of ten feet below the sur- 

 face. Indian tradition reaches none of these remains. I leave 

 them to the antiquarian. 



In the order of my return to Smoky mountain from Valley River, 

 a passing notice of the prospect of mines on Nauteale and Tennessee, 

 above the mountain must not be omitted. Both these streams and 

 their lower branches contain gold. At Wealch's below the mouth of 

 the Tuchasage there is much deposit gold, of which I procured some 

 very fine specimens. The rock formation in this section, is a fine 

 grained gneiss, mica slate and an indurated talcose slate mixed with 

 quartz and garnet, with small cubic iron. 



Between the Smoky mountain and Blue ridge, and its transverse 

 from the upper waters of the French bread to the Lookout mountain, 

 containing five thousand square miles, there is a field presented to 

 the mineralogist not perhaps equalled for extent and interest in the 

 United States. The whole range of Smoky mountain is interesting; 

 as before remarked it is the line between the primitive and transi- 

 tion, its acclivity is very steep, and its top extremely narrow. Quartz, 

 talcose slate and grey wacke are the principal rocks. Gold has been 

 taken out of all the streams descending from it, on either side. Dr, 

 Troost has explored a portion of it, thirty miles, and so far as he has 

 examined, pronounces it a gold region. The formation on the Ten-' 

 nessee side being different, 1 cannot hazard an opinion whether it 

 will yield other valuable metals, besides gold. Iron ore in many of 

 its varieties, titanium and native silver with the gold washed out at 

 Coco creek, may be taken as favorable indications. The rocks of 

 this mountain are unlike those of the Blue ridge. That mountain 



Vol. XXIII.— No. 1. 2 



