212 Remarks on the Gold Mines of North Carolina. 



has heretofore made labor high and provisions scarce. Du- 

 ring the last summer, corn commanded one dollar per bushel 

 at the mines, and even in the country as far up as Salisbury ; 

 this however we are told was a year of extraordinary scarcity, 

 and that forty to fifty cents per bushel may be set down as 

 the average price of corn in this region. 



I entertain the opinion, that the great fall in the price of 

 cotton, will soon begin to produce considerable changes in 

 this country. It will drive part of the labor heretofore ap- 

 plied in that way, into new channels of industry ; some to 

 the mines, and some to the production of small grain and 

 corn. This in time, will not fail to make, the gold mines of 

 North Carolina assume a different character ; when system, 

 science and skill will render them extensively productive. 



That these alluvial deposits of gold, can be worked with 

 regular profits, I have no manner of doubt from my knowl- 

 edge of the mines of other countries, and from the facts we 

 know concerning these deposits themselves. 



The great desideratum is labor-saving machinery. There 

 are many extensive deposits, where, on a general average, each 

 ton of earth promiscuously taken up, will yield sixty grains of 

 gold. — Now if one ton yield sixty grains, it is easy to calcu- 

 late what a machine would make, that could wash twenty or 

 thirty tons per day. 



From a small experiment I made, I doubt whether the ma- 

 chines used at some mines in Europe for washing gold and 

 other metals will answer here. The gold there is mostly de- 

 posited in sand of a regular grain, while here, it is mixed 

 with earth and stones of different sizes. New machinery 

 must therefore be invented, and we ought not to doubt the 

 practicability of doing it. 



Secondly. The foregoing remarks apply altogether to the 

 alluvial deposits. The working of the mines in veins, is yet to 

 be spoken of. These, I think, will turn out, to be the most 

 profitable. First, because the subject of veins is better un- 

 derstood and is susceptible of a more regular and certain busi- 

 ness ; secondly, in the alluvial deposits, the gold is spread over 

 whole acres, while in veins it is more concentrated. There 

 are however some causes that will retard the working of the 

 veins. To work the alluvial spots in the common way, re- 

 quires no capital. A few dollars worth of tools, is all that is 

 necessary ; each day pays its own expenses, and leaves a prof- 

 it : while to work a vein, requires some capital more or less, 



