APPENDIX. 
119 
of the rocks which produced daily deposits of gold. Yery rich deposits 
of gold were struck in the ravines just below the spring which were 
worked up to the spring head. It was found that the sands which daily 
accumulated just below the spring were rich in gold. Taking the hint 
the miners excavated a small basin in the rock over which the spring wa- 
ters ran out. By panning out this basin every morning they would 
obtain from one to three penny weights of gold. Their eagerness, how- 
ever, to get at the sources of the gold led them to put a blast into the 
rock thinking they would immediately develop a vein. The blast no 
doubt fissured the rock and the result was the gold ceased to flow out 
with the water. This is a striking exemplification of the old adage of 
killing the goose that laid the egg. The facts here stated I learned from 
Col. Henry Platt who operated at this spring, a gentleman every way 
worthy of a character for truthfulness. 
The zone passes from this point through the Blue Ridge into Transyl- 
vania county and down Boilston creek, where some gold has been found. 
Much remains to be done in a proper exploration of the gold-bearing 
districts in the trans-montain counties of the State. The probabilities 
are that mines may be found like that at Gumlog mine, in Union county, 
Georgia, which, besides the gold, yield zinc blend and argentiferous Ga- 
lena. The question is worthy, at least, of careful and patient investigation. 
In closing this report I deem it eminently proper to remark that the 
State’s resources and her projected system of railways are germain sub- 
jects, and that the one cannot be successfully prosecuted to the neglect of 
the other. The system adopted years ago for the construction of State 
railways was admirably adapted to the development of her mineral and 
other resources. Its completion would now add more to her material 
wealth than all other things combined. In the development of her min- 
eral, agricultural and physical resources west of the Blue Ridge, and their 
transportation by rail would materially enhance the value of the State 
stocks in her present road. The development and operation of mines in 
the west would greatly increase the value of her real estate and propor- 
tionately enrich the State. A careful review of all the facts stated in this 
report will show an immense field for freights which up to the present 
time has been undeveloped and useless to individual citizens, to the State, 
and to her railroads. Bor example, her iron, marble, agalmatolite, burr- 
stone, roofing slates, copper, corundum, chromium, etc.; and add her 
furniture timbers, timbers for the manufacture of wheel carriages and 
ship building, locust, lynn, poplar, &c., and there is no district of equal 
size in the States of this Union that can furnish so large an amount of 
heavy freights. 
