20 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



weigh as much by several ounces as that which was 

 found in North Carolina. In that portion of the gold 

 region of the United States situated within the chartered 

 limits of Georgia, the richest mineral belt, if it may be 

 so termed, is met with in talcose slate and granite forma- 

 tions, alternating with hornblende, slate, gneiss and chlo- 

 ride slate, taking a direction nearly N. N. E. and 

 S. S. W. between the Chestatee and Chatahoochee 

 rivers, in Habersham county, near the Cherokee nation, 

 crossing subsequently the Chestatee and entering the 

 Cherokee county, it passes the Etowah river and pur- 

 sues an unvarying course till we meet it again on the 

 banks of the Coosa river in the creek nation, in the 

 state of Alabama. 



There are other mineral " belts" of gold veins and 

 mines running a parallel course, at stated intervals and 

 distances from each other, — generally from eight to ten 

 miles, — and are to be met with low down towards Au- 

 gusta, on the Savannah river. These latter cross the 

 Chatahoochee below Columbus. They are terminated 

 in their nearer approach to the seaboard of the Atlantic 

 by the disappearance of the primitive formation, which 

 occurs a short distance above Augusta. This same po- 

 sition of the rocks occurs a little above Fredericksburg 

 in Virginia, where the primitive formation also termi- 

 nates towards the coast. The same geological features 

 are presented as in the neighbourhood of Augusta, 

 Georgia. 



Following the course of the upper mineral belt of 

 Georgia, which is at a distance of from twenty- five to 



