GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 



23 



merous veins partially decomposed are to be seen in the 

 soft bed of the talcose slate., where the superincumbent 

 strata have been removed. These veins cross the branch 

 at various angles, depending on the relative course of 

 the ravine through which the branch or stream wends 

 its way. 



The gravel strata are entirely composed of the bro- 

 ken fragments of the quartz veins, which are to be met 

 with outcropping on the banks of the ravine. The ore 

 itself, sometimes undeconiposed, is met with in the bed, 

 and all the characters of the mineral found in the vein 

 are also to be met with in the branch gravel. The gold 

 also is similar — for gold in some mines is entirely dis- 

 tinct in character from that of others. There was not 

 a mine in Georgia, the gold of which could not be dis- 

 tinguished from any other of the same district, so dis- 

 tinctly marked were the characters of each. 



Branches have been worked, where but one gold vein 

 crossed them, and that at right angles with the stream. 

 Gold would have been found in considerable quantities 

 a few yards below the place where the river crossed— 

 the vein itself being found in the bed of slate in the 

 branch* No gold would be found up the stream^abovc 

 the vein, and but little down, any great distance from 

 the vein. 



The richest branch mines are to be found where the 

 veins enter the branch and continue a straight course 

 for some length down the branch, This is apt to be an 



extensive sold deposit. 



* i ».. ■ : ••,** 



Branch mines- havfe led- to -the discovery of many va- 



