GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 



19 



of this treatise, a plain statement of facts will be offered; 

 and inferences are left to the philosopher and the capi- 

 talist. 



It has been the fortune of the writer of this essay to 

 have had it in his power to visit many of the mining 

 countries of celebrity, and to have become familiar in 

 practice of late years with the various mining opera- 

 tions for the precious metals in different nations, from 

 the mines of the Russian empire to those of the ci-devant 

 Spanish colonies. 



The impression induced by his researches in the 

 United States has been that there are richer ores of 

 gold and richer diluvial gold deposits than are to be 

 met with at Gorgo Soco, in the Brazils, or the Uralian 

 chain of mountains. 



In Russia, splendid and interesting as are the gold 

 specimens found in the deposit mines of the county De- 

 midoff, yet in Georgia, North Carolina, and principally 

 Virginia, in the United States, the writer has met with 

 numerous instances where the weight of specimens of 

 solid gold and the character has been much superior. 

 The mines of the Brazils, the Gorgo Soco itself, cannot 

 be compared with a vein at present known to the writer 

 as existing in the United States. Specimens from Jo- 

 nora and California he has seen in Mexico, as also from 

 El Oro and Angangeo, and from the north in Zacatecas 

 and Chihuahua. They were indeed interesting and 

 beautiful, but are not to be compared with those of the 

 gold regions of the United States. Even the far famed 

 mass of gold in the cabinet at St. pelfepShurg; does not 



