414 



UNITED STATES. 



Specimen of 28 lbs. on being melted and refined, lost 

 only 15 per cent, of its weight. 



The face of the country in the neighbourhood of 

 this Pactolean water is, for the most part, very- 

 uneven. The soil is barren and rocky. The strata 

 of the rock are nearly vertical, and their directioij 

 is from north-east to south-west, like the other great 

 strata throughout the United States. In the inter- 

 stices and chinks between these strata of rock, over 

 which Meadow Creek runs, the pieces of gold ar^ 

 found intermixed with sand. Flint (quartz), and a 

 blue coloured rock (granite), are the prevailing ivinds 

 of rock hereabout. Another sort of earthy matter 

 is irregularly scattered around, which is perfectly 

 black, and covered with a substance resembling soot; 

 as is also another kind of substance which looks lik^ 

 a mixture of tar and sand. Gold has also been dis- 

 covered in the neighbourhood, in creeks. 



A jouraey and survey of the auriferous region wa^ 

 taken during the summer of 1805, by William Thorn- 

 ton, M. D. of Washington. This gentleman has 

 purchased 30,000 acres of the land in the neighbour- 

 hood of Reed's farm, in Cabarras county, where 

 the first parcels of this precious metal were found. 

 Under a persuasion that the tract contains a great 

 quantity of gold, he has published proposals for 

 forming an association, under the name of the North 

 Carolina Gold Mine Company.'* * This is to con-» 

 sist of eleven hundred shares, of 100 dolls, each; 

 which sum when paid to the agent, will be followed 

 by a deed of conveyance to certain persons in trust 

 for the company. They are then to get themselves 



* This Conipany has been formed. 



