EICHLAND COUNTY. 315 



free from pebbles. The gold is found in minute flakes, associated witb 

 black sand (magnetic iron ore), small garnets, and fragments of quartz. 

 It is most abundant at the bottom of gorges opening to the south, rising 

 rather rapidly toward the north, terminating in various branches which 

 start from the top of the hills two or three hundred feet high. On the 

 table land above, large quartz bowlders are occasionally seen, and angu- 

 lar fragments of quartz are abundantly obtained in washing for gold. 

 Pieces of native copper are also found, some of them of considerable size, 

 occasionally copper ore, and very rarely minute quantities of native sil- 

 ver. In the stone quarry near Bellville an angular and partially de- 

 composed fragment of quartz was picked up, containing what the miners 

 call "wire gold" interlaced through it. It had evidently fallen from the 

 gravel bed at the top of the quarry, which contained quartz fragments, 

 mingled with the other erratics. The most plausible theory of the origin 

 of the gold is, that the transposing agencies which brought in and de- 

 posited the surface Drift, passed over veins of gold-bearing quartz which 

 were crushed, broken up, and transported with the other foreign ma- 

 terial, and scattered along a line extending through Richland, Knox, and 

 Licking counties. Ove"r what is now the southern slope of the divide 

 between the waters of the Lake and the Ohio, a thick deposit of Drift 

 has been washed away, the fragments of quartz broken up and disin- 

 tegrated, the gold of the Drift concentrated probably a hundred thousand 

 fold, so that in these protected coves the "color" of gold can be obtained 

 from almost every panful of earth. The first discovery of this fact 

 caused much local excitement, and experienced miners and others pros- 

 pected the whole region, in the confident expectation that these indica- 

 tions would lead to rich placer mining. One returned California miner 

 spent the whole of one summer and fall in prospecting, a part of the 

 time with one, and the rest with three hired assistants. The 'gross 

 amount of gold obtained was between twenty-five and thirty dollars. In 

 the richest localities about one dollar per day can be obtained by steady 

 work. As no gold-bearing rocks are to be found in the State, the occur- 

 rence of gold here can have only a scientific interest connected with the 

 theories of the Drift. 



IRON ORE. 



The rocks of Richland county include a few deposits of iron ore, gen- 

 erally of little value, and the surface accumulations of this mineral are 

 rare. In Plymouth township, on a small stream near the center and 

 west of the railroad, is quite an extensive bed of hydrated oxide of iron, 

 containing large masses of calcareous tufa. No spring of water is ap- 

 parent which could deposit these minerals, and they probably indicate 



