838 GOtD-MlNES OF GEORGIA. 
found ; being sometimes crystallized in beautiM 
six-sided prisms, terminated by a pyramid at one 
endi and attached at the other to other crystals, or, 
more frequently, to a nucleus of feldspar. In some 
of the veins the quartz is compact, resembling 
horn flint; at other times it is crystalline, the fibres 
or crystals radiating from a central nucleus ; and 
these various kinds of quartz are the gangues or 
matrices in which the gold is found. They also 
contain " iron pyrites," " brown oxide of iron," &c. 
As to the mode of their formation, it is generally 
admitted that the fissures were produced by vol- 
canic agency, and the quartz and elements of the 
metals were projected from below into the fissures 
producing the metals and their gangues. From 
late experiments, it is ascertained that galvanic 
electricity has much to do in the formation of me=^ 
tallic veins, and probably always is concerned in 
the production of these phenomena. It is difficult, 
indeed, to imagine how this agent can operate, un- 
less the metals be compounds of gaseous bodies, 
which, by the combination of their simple elements, 
transmitted through conducting substances to im- 
mense distances, produce by their union the differ- 
ent metallic bodies. Thus we often see thin veins 
of gold in the centre of quartz crystals ; how it got 
there in a solid form is more than we can explain, 
except on the above principle of its being a com- 
pound body. It is highly probable, and, indeed, all 
known facts bear us out in the assertion, that the 
deeper we penetrate the rocks containing metallic 
veins, the thicker and more valuable do the veins 
become. Still the vein may be so thin, that, after a 
certain depth, it cannot be profitably worked. 
It is impossible to notice all the places where 
gold has been found in Georgia. It was about the 
year 1830 that public attention was directed to this 
subject, by the discovery of gold in Habersham 
county. It was soon ascertained that the whole qS 
