GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



27 



place ; in some mines such a failure has originated in 

 the poverty of the ores, which were actually of insuffi- 

 cient value to justify even an experiment involving but 

 slight expense. There have been others again aban- 

 doned from the want of capital to carry out and execute 

 plans which had at the commencement been based on 

 large expenditures and immediate prospects of return. 



The gold loads of the United States cannot yet be 

 considered as properly and fully explored. The greatest 

 depth yet examined does not much exceed 150 feet ; 

 shafts of 100 feet in depth are, perhaps, more general ; 

 but in ordinary attempts at mining in the gold region, 

 from twenty to thirty feet from the surface has generally 

 either satisfied curiosity or the rude attempts at de- 

 velopment. At such a depth as this little information is 

 to be gleaned of the position or character of mineral 

 load in these sections of country, 



The character of the formation — the certain evi- 

 dences every where met with of change and interrup- 

 tion in the position of the veins, would at the first glance 

 satisfy any experienced miner that such attempts, such 

 partial developments, were idle and fruitless ; but ne- 

 vertheless veins are daily opened to this slight depth, 

 and however promising the surface indications, how- 

 ever rich the display of actual gold in the debris on the 

 top of the ground; if the vein is altered in appearance; 

 if it is accidentally heaved to a side; if it becomes less 

 in width, or more shattered than at the commencement 

 of the shaft, it is ten to one but it is abandoned alto- 

 gether. This fact is of common notoriety, and many 



