GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



17 



ceeding as well from ignorance of the character and in- 

 dications of gold ores and mines, and their mode of 

 treatment and operation, as from the consequent discou- 

 ragement in the first stages of a business which is ad- 

 mitted in older mining countries to require a large share 

 of perseverance, judgment, economy and science to con- 

 duct to a profitable issue, — that notwithstanding all this, 

 fresh attempts and developments of daily notoriety are 

 in progress along the vast region bordering on the Blue 

 Ridge mountains, from Virginia to Alabama. 



Some few individuals, favoured as much by chance as 

 otherwise, have met the success they sought for. Many 

 mining enterprises have been abandoned in despair, at 

 a period when a little longer perseverance would have 

 found its own reward : while others again have wisely 

 broken up mining establishments which never, in any 

 country, would have excited the hopes of an experienced 

 miner. 



To the failure of some mining enterprises — to the 

 reckless and heavy expenditures of others,— but more 

 than all, to the visionary statements and anticipations of 

 all, must be attributed the coldness and distrust with 

 which, for some time, this important mineral section of 

 the U. S. has been regarded. 



When we look around and regard the position of the 

 celebrated mining districts of S. America, the exact po- 

 sition of the mineral treasures — the expense of mining 

 "materiel," and many of the circumstances bearing 

 prominently on the subject, and then casta glance com- 



Vol. I — C 



