64 Geology of Massachusetts. 
by the discovery of a spherical mass of gold, of the value of more 
than a dollar; afterwards he found other small pieces. At the request 
of Mr. Wilder, I visited this spot a few weeks ago, and found that 
an individual conversant with the gold mines in the Southern States, 
and acquainted with the process of washing, the metal from the soil, 
had just been examining the region now spoken of. ‘The result 
was a conviction, that over several hundred acres at least, gold was 
common in the soil. In a bushel of dirt collected in various places, 
he found about three pennyweights of very pure gold. Mr. Wilder 
proceeded himself to exhibit to me an ocular demonstration of the ex- 
istence of gold in the soil, by washing for it. From about six quarts 
of dirt, taken a foot below the surface, we obtained (although not 
very skilful in manipulations of this sort) twenty or thirty small pieces, 
weighing about seven grains. Indeed, by the aid of my knife, I picked 
two or three pieces from the dirt. 
The iron ore is in beds in distinct talcose slate ; and a considerable 
part of the ore is the brown oxide, and contained im a porous quartz. 
In this quartz, were found several spherical pieces of gold, scarcely 
larger than a pigeon shot. Whether it exists, asin the Southern States, 
in finer particles in the yellowish iron ore, has not been ascertamed. 
But specimens of the quartz and iron at this place, cannot be distin- 
guished from what is called gold ore, at the gold mines in Virginia, and 
North Carolina. Indeed, a suite of specimens from the Somerset 
iron mine, could not be distinguished, except by labels, from a simi- 
lar suite from the south. 
In every case in which gold has been found at this place, in the 
soil, it was accompanied by more or less of iron sand, and some dis- 
tance north of the mine, neither could be found; but how far to the 
South and East it occurs, has not been ascertained. I am inclined 
however to believe, that the gold at this locality, will be found to be 
always associated with the iron. 
We were told at Somerset, that several years ago, a mass of gold 
was found in the bed of Deerfield river, three or four miles to the 
-south of the mine, which was sold for sixty eight dollars, and we had 
no reason to doubt the statement. Certain it is, that a few years since, 
a piece was discovered by Gen. Field, weighing eight and a half 
ounces, in New Fane, a town twelve or fifteen miles east of Somerset. 
Upon the whole, it appears to me that the facts above stated justify 
the conclusion, that there exists a gold region in the lower part of 
Vermont, of considerable extent and richness. It may be found to be 
