282 
GEOLOGY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
fragments of quartz with strings and plates and crystals of native gold, 
these fragments evidently representing the entire thickness of the vein 
from which they were weathered. And in a few localities the minute 
veins and gold-bearing laminae of quartz are so abundant in the decom- 
posed mass of rock as to make it profitable, where water is abundant, to 
wash down large masses and breasts of such earth. Col. Mills has made 
this interesting and successful experiment. But the drift-beds, where 
nature has already performed this preliminary and expensive part of the 
work, furnish as yet, more profitable working. 
There is also a series of gold-bearing gravel-beds in Caldwell county, 
chiefly on Lower Creek and its tributaries, mostly those on the north side. 
In this region, on John’s River, are two vein mines of some note, the 
Baker Mine and the Michaux Mine. In the latter the veins are very 
much scattered and subdivided into threads and strings. The country 
rock is gneiss and mica schist, much decomposed. The Baker Mine is a 
little higher up the river, near the mouth of Wilson’s Creek. The vein 
is enclosed between a heavy bed of serpentine and a body of felspathic 
slaty gneiss. A large quartz vein, which meets this, nearly at right 
angles, is auriferous, and contains argentiferous galena, in minute 
quantities. 
In Polk county also, near the foot of the Blue Ridge, there are several 
gold ‘‘diggings” at Sandy Plains, and on Pacolet (Pactolus?) River. 
The gold is found in the “gravel ” from the debris of the neighboring 
denuded hills of mica schist. These deposits are found along the streams, 
over an area of several miles. 
Beyond the Blue Ridge are several gold mining localities, some of which 
at one time attracted considerable attention. In Watauga county a 
limited area of gold-gravel is found on Howard’s Creek, which was 
worked on a small scale some years before the war. Indications of gold 
have been found on Cane Creek, in Buncombe county, and on Boylston 
in Transylvania, but no deposits or veins of importance have been dis- 
covered. 
There are two other “ gold regions” in the mountain section, one in 
Cherokee, the other in Jackson. 
The gold of Jackson county is also obtained almost entirely from 
placers or detrital beds. These are situated chiefly along southern slopes 
of the Blue Ridge, near Hogback and Chimney Top Mountains. The 
most important locality is Fairfield Yalley, where Georgetown Creek, 
one of the head streams of the Toxaway, is said to have yielded between 
two and three hundred thousand dollars. The deposits extend several 
miles along these elevated basins and have by no means been exhausted. 
