RICHLAND COUNTY. 315 
free from pebbles. The gold is found in minute flakes, associated with 
black sand (magnetic iron ore), small garnets, and fragments of quartz. 
It is most abundant at the bottom of gorges opening to the south, rising 
rather rapidly toward the north, terminating in various branches which 
start from the top of the hills two or three hundred feet high. On the 
table land above, large quartz bowlders are occasionally seen, and angu- 
lar fragments of quartz are abundantly obtained in washing for gold. 
Pieces of native copper are also found, some-of them of considerable size, 
occasionally copper ore, and very rarely minute quantities of native sil- 
ver. In the stone quarry near Bellville an angular and partially de- 
composed fragment of quartz was picked up, containing what the miners 
call “wire gold” interlaced through it. It had evidently fallen from the 
gravel bed at the top of the quarry, which contained quartz fragments, 
- mingled with the other erratics.. The mst plausible theory of the origin 
of the gold is, that the transposing agencies which brought in and de- 
posited the surface Drift, passed over veins of gold-bearing quartz which 
were crushed, broken up, and transported with the other foreign ma- 
_ terial, and scattered along a line extending through Richland, Knox, and 
Licking counties. Over what is now the southern slope of the divide 
between the waters of the Lake and the Ohio, a thick deposit of Drift 
has been washed away, the fragments of quartz broken up and disin- 
tegrated, the gold of the Drift concentrated probably a hundred thousand 
fold, so that in these protected coves the “color” of gold can be obtained 
from almost every panful of earth. The first discovery of this fact 
caused much local excitement, and experienced miners and others pros- 
pected the whole region, in the confident expectation that these indica- 
tions would lead to rich placer mining. One returned California miner 
spent the whole of one summer and fall in prospecting, a part of the 
time with one, and the rest with three hired assistants. The gross 
amount of gold obtained was between twenty-five and thirty dollars. In 
the richest localities about one dollar per day can be obtained by steady 
work. As no gold-bearing rocks are to be found in the State, the occur- 
rence of gold here can have only a scientific interest connected with the 
theories of the Drift. 
IRON ORE. 
The rocks of Richland county include a few deposits of iron ore, gen- 
erally of little value, and the surface accumulations of this mineral are 
rare. In Plymouth township, on a small stream near the center and 
west of the railroad, is quite an extensive bed of hydrated oxide of iron, 
containing large masses of calcareous tufa. No spring of water is ap- 
parent which could deposit these minerals, and they probably indicate 
