
          Little Rock Dec 3rd 1851


 Dear Sir


 A small party have spent the past
 summer & fall among the Indians where we found large
 bodies of Talcose slate & Pyrite containing gold, a specimen
 of each you will find enclosed, having seen an article
 in the March number (1837) of the Scientific American
 stating that you had asserted that Chloride of lime would take
 out gold from sand and all earthly matter, has induced us
 to address you. We have made some experiments: roasted, pulverized,
 washed, used acids & precipitated with copper or water & pulverized
 (mechanical roasting) [dessalined?] with chloride of lime & precipitated
 with copper or water, was successful, but have had poor
 success in reducing it to a metalic [metallic] state under the blow pipe
 especially that obtained by your process. Is it necessary to
 roast the ores when Chloride of lime is used? What is the best
 flask to use with the blowpipe? What is the best method of 
 smelting it on a large scale? Can these ores be worked on a 
 large scale with Chloride of lime? Is it necessary to warm
 the Chloride of lime before making use of it? Does Talcose slate 
 & Pyrites improve in richness, the deeper we go down? Can you 
 refer us to any good or late work that [inserted: would] give us all the information
 on the subject that we may want? In the mountains where
 we found these ores, almost all of the slates & Pyrites contain
 gold, small veins of Pyrites not thicker than a half Dollar
 running through slate, quartz and Calcareous spar, contained
 gold. Can you give us any information in a geological point

        