48 DISTRIBUTION OP METALLIC VEINS AND MINERAL BEDS, &C. 
to act, before the newer secondary strata had begun to be deposited. 
It would, therefore, be great folly to look for them in the low- 
country of North Carolina. It is improbable that we shall 
discover in that part of the state the ore of any metal but iron, or 
that it contains more than two or three species of iron ore. 
2. Salt, coal, and gypsum, have never yet been found, except in 
the transition, secondary, and tertiary strata. The valuable mines 
of these substances, and especially of coal, are in the newer tran- 
sition and ancient secondary. They do not, therefore, exist in 
our western counties. 
3. A difference obtains amongst the different strata, embracing 
metallic veins, in regard both to the kind of metal they yield, 
and the quantity, when the ores of the same metal are common 
to two or more species of rock, as will appear from the following 
more particular statements. 
4. A greater variety of metallic ores is found in granite than 
in any other rock: a circumstance to be attributed in part to the 
fact that no other substance occupies so large a space on the sur- 
face of the globe, but the quantity of metal derived from veins 
traversing granite, is generally small. The most important mines 
wrought in it are those of tin and iron. The more valuable of the 
gold mines of North Carolina are in a granitic country, though 
the veins do not appear to traverse this rock but another, em- 
bedded in it, or reposing upon it. 
5. Gneiss abounds in ores, which are in veins and beds. Mines 
of tin, lead, copper, zinc, silver, and cobalt, are wrought in it. — 
Some of the iron mines of North Carolina yielding the best kind 
of ore are in gneiss. 
6. Mica Slate contains nearly the same metals that are found 
in gneiss, and in about the same abundance. 
7. Quartz Rock is not known to contain any valuable ores of 
any kind. 
S. Serpentine is distinguished for the presence of magnetic 
iron ore, often occuring in octahedral crystals. It yields also the 
chromate of iron. 
9. Primitive Limestone embraces veins and beds of iron, lead, 
and zinc. 
10. Clay Slate, (including under this single denomination 
porphyry and grey-wacke), is rich in the metals, containing beds 
and veins of most of the more valuable kinds. It abounds 
especially in the ores of copper, lead, and silver. 
11. Tin, bismuth, chromium, molybdenum, titanium, cerium, 
columbium, and uranium, (with the exception of the first three, rare 
and worthless substances), belong to the older primitive rocks, 
only very feeble traces of them being found amongst the newer 
formations. 
12. Arsenic, cobalt, nickel, silver, and copper, are found in the 
ancient primitive formations, but are not confined to them, some 
of them being abundant in rocks of later date. 
