916 Remarks on the Gold Mines of North Carolina. 



found by washing in the usual way. Mr. Barringer employed 

 the time he could spare from his farm in searching for gold in 

 this way ; and as it was a regular business with him, he began at B 

 and worked up the stream towards A finding gold as he advan- 

 ced until he passed the line EF when he ceased finding. The 

 sudden failure of the gold appeared to him as something 

 strange, and uncommon, and he determined to search into the 

 cause. The idea struck him that possibly " the gold might have 

 come out of the hill" as he expressed it. Returning to the spot 

 where he ceased finding gold, io wit, to the line E and F and see- 

 ing a few flint rocks on the side F he commenced digging at that 

 place. He had not dug more than two or three feet into the 

 side of the hill, and as many deep until he struck a nest of gold 

 richly intermixed with quartz and running through it in all direc- 

 tions. About twelve or fifteen hundred pennyweights of gold 

 were taken out here in the course of the day. The gold was 

 now ascertained to be in a regular vein, situated in the green- 

 stone slate. The matrix of the gold was quartz, and in fact, the 

 vein at this place was constituted mostly of quartz. In pursuing 

 the vein a few feet deeper and further into the hill a second nest 

 of gold was found equally rich, and still following on further and 

 deeper, a third a fourth and fifth deposit a few feet a part, were 

 found, making in the whole 1600 to 2000 dollars worth of the 

 precious metal. As they descended, the gold was found in a dif- 

 ferent matrix from quartz, but whether belonging to the same 

 vein or not, I have no data to determine. By this time the pit was 

 sunk ten or twelve feet below the level of the branch, and at 

 about twenty-five feet below the surface of the earth, the ascent 

 of the ground from a to b being twelve or fifteen feet in thirty 

 yards. The water now began to flow in, through the fissures of 

 the rock, in such quantities as considerably to retard the work. 

 The pit from a to b in its whole length was laid open from the 

 surface down, and the earth and pieces of rocks carelessly heap- 

 ed up on the sides, so that every rain, that fell carried its tor- 

 rents into the pit, — no part of it being covered, and the rain too 

 falling on the piles of earth and stones on the sides of the hole, 

 large parcels very often slid into the pit, and of course gave 

 new employment until removed. Under these disadvantages, 

 and for the want of skill, the work of following the vein went 

 on slowly. The winter rains setting in, made it still worse, and 

 it was found necessary to abandon the whole work until the fol- 

 lowing summer. During the following summer, the work was 

 resumed under an ephemeral association of a few individuals, 

 who expected without capital to open the vein, and make their 

 fortunes. But their limited means were exhausted in removing 

 the rubbish and they bad scarcely commenced operating, when 



