88  CONTRIBUTIONS    TO    ECONOMIC    GEOLOGY,   1903.  [bull. 225. 
seen  that  showed  anything  more  than  moderate  impregnation  of  quartz 
with  sulphides. 
In  southern  Vermont  the  only  gold  known  to  have  been  mined  at 
anything  like  a  profit  is  that  found  in  the  gravel  deposits  of  Plymouth. 
Hager  reports  the  largest  nuggets  found  here  to  have  had  values  of 
$14  and  $9.  To  what  extent  even  the  Plymouth  work  was  profitable 
is  doubtful,  in  view  of  the  inexperience  of  those  who  engaged  in  this 
gold  washing  between  1855  and  1861.  The  origin  of  this  gold  in  the 
alluvial  deposits  can  not  be  stated.  The  presence  in  this  vicinity  of 
steatite  and  serpentine  probably  representing  altered  basic  igneous 
rocks  is  naturally  at  once  noticed  in  this  connection.  The  possibility 
of  this  derivation  for  the  gold  was  suggested  by  Hager  in  18(31,"  and 
the  statement  of  a  prospector  quoted  "that  he  did  not  think  he  ever 
washed  a  dollar's  worth  of  gold  5  miles  east  or  west  of  the  line  of 
serpentine  and  soapstone  beds,  or  $5  worth  1  mile  east  or  west  of 
them."  In  this  part  of  Vermont  abandoned  stream  channels  and  other 
features  due  to  diversion  of  streams  in  the  past  are  so  common  and 
apparent  as  to  be  readily  noticed  by  the  traveler.  These  changes  in 
the  old  drainage  complicate  somewhat  the  task  of  tracing  the  alluvial 
gold  back  to  the  rock  from  which  it  was  derived;  but  in  any  search 
for  gold  veins  these  drainage  features  must  be  taken  into  account. 
The  essential  feature  in  the  question  of  the  occurrence  of  gold  in 
Vermont  is  the  economic  value  of  the  deposits.  No  better  statement 
of  this  can  be  made  for  the  benefit  of  the  public  than  that  made  by  E. 
Hitchcock/'  in  1861:  "We  trust  that  too  much  is  known  on  this 
subject  at  the  present  day  to  leave  any  to  indulge  in  extravagant  spec- 
ulation, or  to  make  investments  without  reason." 
a  Op.  Cit.,  p.  848. 
b  Vermont  Geol.  i-'urv.,  Final  Kept.,  vol.  1,  p.  533. 
