184 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY, 1902. [bull. 213. 
ore or croppings, constituting what has been called the great Gossan 
lode of Virginia, the deposits extending in the same general direction 
into North Carolina (Ashe County). These deposits have not yet 
been visited, but published descriptions indicate their close resem- 
blance to the well-known deposits at Ducktown, Tenn. 
The Virgilina deposits consist of native copper in quartz-filled fis- 
sure veins traversing andesitic porphyries altered to metamorphic 
schists. The ores consist principally of glance occurring in small 
bunches and thin lenses and rarely in large ore shoots. Some bornite 
also occurs, and this forms the chief ore mineral in the calcite gangue 
at the Blue Wing mine, North Carolina. These minerals in decom- 
posing have produced the usual green carbonate, silicate, etc., near 
the surface of the ground. The character of the quartz indicates that 
it is* the filling of an open fissure, but the veins show the lenticular 
thinning and thickening characteristic of veins in schistose rock. In 
some cases they cross the schistosity at a sharp angle and send short 
spurs off into the parting planes. Dikes of massive diabase occur 
that are later in age than the schists. These dikes narrow and impov- 
erish the veins, but do not interrupt them. The ores are extremely 
siliceous, owing to the quartz gangue, hence careful sorting and con- 
centrating is necessary before shipment. 
NORTH CAROLINA. 
This State is rich in copper deposits, I hough lew have been com- 
mercially developed. The larger pail of the Virgilina field, whose 
veins have just been described, occurs in this State and includes the 
Holloway, Bluewing, Durgee, and Person mines, the first named 
being a successful producer for many years, the ores going to Norfolk, 
where they are smelted with ores brought from Capelton, Quebec. 
The most extensive development is, however, at Gold Hill, 12 miles 
from Salisbury, N. C. The chief output is from the mine of the 
Union Copper Company. The veins show ore shoots of dark gray 
and white quartz, carrying chalcopyrite and having a characteristic 
gneissoid structure. The veins generally consist of altered schists, 
and the inclosing rocks have been classed as Cambrian. These 
deposits are closely allied to the pyritic gold deposits of the Carolinas, 
which occur for many miles along the border of a large area of erup- 
tive granite. The Gold Hill district has been the largest gold- 
producing district of the South, the gold occuring in the gossan of 
the copper lodes. The veins are lenticular in character, and thicken 
and thin rapidly. Although a large amount of money has been spent 
on these properties in the last three years and the veins have been 
opened for several hundred feet in depth, no definite assurance of 
their probable future value can be gotten from the data at hand. 
An expensive 1 milling and reduction plant has been erected and is in 
