Gold Region of ' the United States. 187 



on the banks of the ravine. The ore itself, sometimes undecom- 

 posed, is met with in the bed, arid all the characters of the mi- 

 neral found in the vein are also to be met with in the branch 

 gravel. The gold also is similar — for gold in some is entirely 

 distinct in character from that of others. There was not a mine 

 in Georgia, the gold of which could not be distinguished from 

 any other of the same district, so distinctly marked were the 

 characters of each. Branch mines have led to the discovery of 

 many valuable vein-mines, for when they worked until the gold 

 seemed to fail, they would come back and open into the sides or 

 banks of the ravine, guided by the gold, and at last discover 

 valuable bodies of gold-ore. Many instances of this kind are 

 notorious in North Carolina and Virginia. The branch gold- 

 mines of the United States are supposed to have yielded 6,000,000 

 of dollars, most of which is worked up in jewellery, and not in 

 coinage. Three deposit-mines in Georgia have yielded 500,000 

 dollars, and Mr Taylor confidently anticipates that the gold- 

 deposits of the United States will yield far larger returns than 

 those of Brazil, Colombia, and the Urals united. The ex- 

 plorations for gold have not as yet been carried to a great depth, 

 the greatest not exceeding 150 feet, and few of the shafts are over 

 100 feet, and most do not exceed ^0 or 30. These excavations 

 are too shallow to afford satisfactory information respecting the 

 gold, and the digging is often abandoned upon the slightest un- 

 favourable appearance, such as the narrowing of the vein, its 

 dislocation, or its becoming shattered; for there is much appear- 

 ance of disorganization in the veins and rocks. Pyritical ores 

 constitute the mass of the ores in Columbia, Brazil, and the 

 United States; above the depth of 100 feet they have been, in 

 this county, partially decomposed ; the yellow ores have been 

 converted into brown, red and purple hydrates of iron, and a 

 portion of the gold they contain having thus become uncovered, 

 is accessible to amalgamation, while a large portion more is or 

 can be developed by the essay by fire. Most of the gold is ex- 

 tracted by amalgamation, after stamping under water, and the 

 residuum still contains gold. Messrs Andres Del Rio and John 

 Millington, as a committee from the Geological Society of Penn- 

 sylvania, have investigated the Rappahannock gold mines in 

 Virginia, situated on the river, about ten miles from Fredricks- 



