54 MINERAL RESOURCES OF ALABAMA. 



and determinable Carboniferous fossils (lepidostrobiis.) 



The gold ores run in value from a mere trace of gold to $500 

 a ton, but the richest ores are thin. Where the ore body con- 

 sists of thin lenses in gold bearing slates the values seldom run 

 higher than $2.00 a ton. 



Above the water level these ores are all free milling, porous, 

 friable and usually iron stained, at times showing free gold to 

 the eye. 



Below water level are the sulphurets in Alabama as else- 

 where. 



The quartz veins vary, in thickness from a few inches to 50 

 feet, while the ore bodies consisting of thin lenses imbedded in 

 the impregnated slates are sometimes several hundred feet thick. 

 All these ore bodies maintain their values with the depth so far 

 as they have been worked. 



In addition to the above, there are a few placer deposits of 

 much importance, and decayed rock, saprolite, from which gold 

 may be obtained by merely washing. 



Perhaps the most prominent and persistent of the ore leads is 

 that known as the Devil's Back Bone, crossing Tallapoosa 

 county near its northwestern border. In this the quartz veins 

 are from 6 to 50 feet in thickness, and in the immediate vicinity 

 of this ridge are several large ore bodies consisting of quartz 

 lenses in impregnated highly graphitic slates without any well 

 defined wall. The Back Bone is the most southeasterly of the 

 gold belts and is probably the richest. 



Only one of the belts of fully crystalline rocks, viz., the most 

 northwesterly, carries any gold deposits of consequence, so far 

 as is yet known. 



Mining operations of greater or less magnitude have been 

 conducted in more than 100 localities in the following counties : 

 Tallapoosa, Cleburne, Randolph, Clay, Talladega, Coosa, Chil- 

 ton, and Elmore. 



In Tallapoosa county there are over 30 of these mines, the 

 most important being in the Silver Hill, Goldville, Hog Moun- 

 tain, and Eagle Creek districts. 



Cleburne county has nearly thirty gold mines, the most im- 

 portant being in the Arbacoochee, Chulafinnee, Kemp's Creek, 

 Turkey Heaven, and Kemp Mountain districts. 



In Randolph county there are more than 20, mainly in the 

 Goldberg, Pinetucky, and Wedowee districts. Clay county has 

 half a dozen, all in the Idaho district. Talladega has several in 



