1857.] ANSTED — MINERAL VEINS. 245 



have here been sunk, one to 1 2 and another to 25 fathoms, and adits 

 driven in from the hill-side to cut the lode at convenient places. 

 From an adit-level driven into the hill about 35 fathoms, blocks of 

 hard compact steatite, deeply tinged vrith copper-stains, and portions 

 of the lode with good stones of copper-ore, have been brought. Ex- 

 cellent stones of ore have also been taken from the shafts, and the in- 

 dications of a good copper-lode were very strong. 



Two miles still further to the north, at a place called " Mineral 

 Hill," a course of ore is indicated under precisely similar conditions, 

 and some simple surface-operations have been commenced which show 

 that the copper-pyrites is here nearer the surface than either at Spring- 

 field or Carrol. At Fenceburg, six miles beyond, and always in the 

 same direction, copper-ore has been obtained to profit under similar 

 circumstances. 



It appears, therefore, that in this district there are several pipe- 

 like courses of copper-ore occurring in veins parallel to the stratifi- 

 cation, proved for a length of at least ten miles and at least three 

 in number ; that the courses of ore are individually of no great mag- 

 nitude near the surface ; that they are surmounted by a gossan of 

 crystalline protoxide and peroxide of iron in a highly magnetic state ; 

 that the ore-deposits underlie to the south within the vein ; that the 

 enclosing rock is highly mineralized ; that steatitic rocks and talcose 

 schists prevail near the orey parts of the veins ; and that the vein- 

 stone in the intervals between the orey portions contains little or no 

 magnetic ore. 



Near a remarkable and exceedingly picturesque spot called the 

 Point of Rocks, where the Potomac River emerges from a narrow 

 gorge on coming out from the Blue Ridge, an enormous mass of 

 limonite or hydrous oxide of iron crops out and has been quarried to 

 a considerable extent. This ore occurs in a soft slaty rock dipping 

 east, and appears to be the gossany top belonging to several lodes, 

 between each adjacent two of which a soft blue shale intervenes. The 

 masses of ore occur in the form of geodes or concretions, with a cavity 

 in the interior often partially filled with clayey matter. These geodes 

 are from 20 to 1 00 feet in length, and are sometimes round, but more 

 frequently much flattened. A partial attempt has been made to cut 

 across the ferruginous mass, but the width was unproved at the time 

 of my visit. The mass appears to extend for some distance parallel 

 to the Blue Ridge, but the ground is covered up. 



There is no proof of copper existing beneath this mass of iron- 

 oxide, but it has every appearance of being the top of a lode which 

 may probably be cupriferous. It is evidently the gossan of an import- 

 ant group, as blocks of quartz and masses of veinstone are distinctly 

 traceable along the line of the crop to some distance. 



3. On the Copper Lodes of Ducktown in East Tennessee. 



In the eastern corner of the State of Tennessee, near the point 

 where that State meets North Carolina and Georgia, and not far from 

 Virginia, is a small depressed mountain tract in the Central AUe- 



