2 1 4 Remarks on the Gold Mines of North Carolina. 



granite called " Central Granite" of the mountains of Silesia and 

 others parts of Europe. 



(c.) This may be very distinctly seen at Barringer's gold mine, 

 Montgomery county. 



(d.) I followed this formation of secondary greenstone, passing 

 into hornblende, in a north east direction, from Salisbury as far as 

 the Virginia line : and it seems that the hornblende, west of 

 Lynchburg in Virginia, belongs to the same formation. 



(e.) My views on this part of the subject are according to the 

 Wernerian theory. 



(/".) Veins of two feet thickness in other mining countries have 

 been followed two thousand feet deep, with but little variation. 



(§•.) My own experiments have satisfied me of the correctness 

 of these remarks. Within the past two years, veins have been 

 worked on, and at the depth of eight or ten feet no more gold is 

 seen, but pyrites in great abundance are found. I have analysed 

 some of these pyrites and find in them the same relative propor- 

 tion of gold, as in the brown red oxid of iron. 



(h.) As before stated, the first gold found, was in a matrix of 

 quartz. The last finding was in a different substance. Professor 

 Olmsted writes to Mr. Fisher of Salisbury that Professor Silli- 

 man has analysed some specimens sent him, and pronounces it to 

 be " bitter spath — a magnesian carbonate of lime." 



(t.) Barringer's and Reed's mines are examples in point — and 

 it is very clear that the rich deposits of gold on the lands of Mr. 

 Parker belong to the same, i. e. the second formation. 



(j.) For example the gold found at Reed's. 



(fc.) For example the gold found at Barringer's. 



(/.) For example the mountains on the Beaver-dam Creek. 



(m.) Parker mine and several others furnish examples of this 

 kind. 



(n.) For example iron and copper. 



(o.) Between this and the next bed, in the course of my exper- 

 iments I have found pieces of wood and roots changed to bitumin- 

 ous mineral coal, lying about six feet below the surface ; a proof 

 that the inundation which broke up the veins and scattered the 

 gold, probably took place at a time when vegetation already cov- 

 ered the earth. 



(p.) Those places last mentioned are generally rich, because, 

 the gold from its great specific gravity, remained, while the 

 lighter parts were washed away. 



(q.) This may be seen at the mines in Anson county and others. 



