A Book of the United States. Various
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The gold weighed twelve pennyweights. Mineralogists may perhaps recognise, in this description, a congeries of fine crystals, but on that point the proprietor was uninformed. Although fragments of greenstone, and of several argillaceous minerals, occur among the gravel of the gold stratum yet, in the opinion of the miners, it is never found attached to any other mineral than quartz. Indeed, it is seldom attached to any substance, but is commonly scattered promiscuously among the gravel. Its color is generally yellow, with a reddish tinge, though the surface is not unfrequently obscured by a partial incrustation of iron or manganese, or adhering particles of sand. The masses are flattened and vascular, having angles rounded with evident marks of attrition.
Parker’s Mine is situated on a small stream, four miles south of the river Yadkin. As in the instance already mentioned, excavations were numerous in the low grounds adjacent to the stream; but the earth for washing, which was of a snuff color, was transported from a ploughed field in the neighborhood, elevated about fifty or sixty feet above the stream. The earth at this place, which contained the gold, was of a deeper red than that of either the other mines. The gold found here is chiefly in flakes and grains. Occasionally, however, pieces are met with that weigh one hundred pennyweights, and upwards; and one mass has been discovered that weighed four pounds and eleven ounces. This is said to have been found at the depth of ten feet.
The mines have given some peculiarities to the state of society in the neighboring country. The precious metal is a most favorite acquisition, and constitutes the common currency. Almost every man carries about with him a goose quill or two of it, and a small pair of scales in a box like a spectacle case. The value, as in patriarchal times, is ascertained by weight, which, from the dexterity acquired by practice, is a less troublesome mode of counting money than one would imagine.
The greatest part of the gold collected at these mines is bought up, by country merchants, at ninety or ninety-one cents a pennyweight. They carry it to market-towns, as Fayetteville, Cheraw, Charleston, and New York. Much of this is bought up by jewellers; some remains in the banks; and a considerable quantity has been received at the Mint of the United States. Hence it is not easy to ascertain the precise amount which the mines have afforded. The value of that portion received at the mint, before the year 1820, was forty-three thousand six hundred and eighty-nine dollars. It is alloyed with a small portion of silver and copper, but is still purer than standard gold, being twenty-three carats fine.
Since the year 1827, the gold mines of Virginia have attracted considerable attention. The belt of country in which they are found extends through Spotsylvania and some neighboring counties. The gold region abounds in quartz, which contains cubes of sulphuret of iron. These cubes are often partly or totally decomposed; and the cells thus created are sometimes filled with gold. The gold is found on the surface and in the structure of quartz; but in the greatest abundance resting upon slate and in its fissures. It is diffused over a large extent, and has not yet been found sufficiently in mass, except in a few places, to make mining profitable. The method of obtaining the metal is by filtration, or washing the earth, and by an amalgam of quicksilver. The average value of the earth yielding gold, is stated at twenty cents a bushel.
Habersham and Hall counties are the chief seat of the gold mines of Georgia, and its discovery there has been very recent. The search was commenced by a gentleman of the name of Wilhero, and proved eminently successful; deposits of gold were found in the counties mentioned, and discovery followed discovery. In the Cherokee nation, which was separated by the Chestetee river, the indications of gold were not strong, but report exaggerated them, and this unfortunate nation was intruded upon as a common; at one time, about five thousand adventurers were engaged in digging up the face of the country. The owners of the gold lands in Habersham and Hall counties were many of them poor and destitute, and, with the exception of a few deposits, the most valuable tracts were sold to speculators. Many of these have frequently changed owners at increased prices, and four companies have regularly commenced mining operations.40
Silver and its ores are not of frequent or extensive occurrence in the United States. Doctor Dana states the curious fact, that a mass three or four inches in diameter, composed principally of native silver in filaments, was found on the top of a wall near Portsmouth, New Hampshire; the surrounding hills are chiefly greenstone. Mercury, which has been found native in Kentucky, occurs more plentifully as a sulphuret in Ohio and the Michigan territory, more particularly on the shores of lakes Michigan, Huron, St. Clair, Detroit river, and Lake Erie, to the mouth of Vermilion river. It occurs in the soil in the form of a black and red sand, but is usually more abundant in banks of fine ferruginous clay. Near the mouth of Vermilion river, it is in the form of a very fine powder, or in grains and small masses, disseminated in clay. It yields by distillation about sixty per cent. of mercury.
Copper, in various forms, is found in the United States, but the ores do not appear to be brought into use. It is not found on the shores of Lake Superior so abundantly as was anticipated; but many specimens of copper ore have been found at different points in the Mississippi valley. Specimens of pure and malleable copper have been obtained; one of which, said to have been found in Illinois, weighed three pounds. Iron ores are abundant in the United States. Those hitherto worked are chiefly the magnetic oxide, brown hematite, and the argillaceous oxide, particularly bog ore. The more important ores are the following, viz.: in New Hampshire, the magnetic oxide; in Vermont, brown hematite and bog ore; in Massachusetts, bog ore; in Rhode Island, brown hematite; in Connecticut, brown hematite and bog ore; in New York, the magnetic, specular, and argillaceous oxides; in New Jersey, the magnetic and argillaceous oxides; in Pennsylvania, and the states south and west, the magnetic oxide, brown hematite, and the argillaceous oxide.
To these may now be added the carbonate of iron, which has recently been successfully smelted, and which produces iron having the carbonaceous impregnation of steel, whence it has been called steel ore. In New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the ore is found in abundance, and of a quality not exceeded in Sweden. The Connecticut and Virginia iron is highly esteemed.
Ores of lead are extensively found in the territories; and in Ohio it is said to have been met with native, forming slips, or slender prismatic masses, in crystallized galena. This mineral is found in various places, from the Arkansas river to the North-West territory, the precise line of the Ozark and Shawnee Mountains, a tract which seems to constitute one of the most important and extensive deposits of lead hitherto known. On the Arkansas, the ore is smelted by the Osage Indians for bullets. To the northward, some valuable mines at Prairie du Chien are imperfectly worked by the proprietors of the soil. But the most important mines are those of Cape Girardeau district, commonly known as the lead mines of Missouri. The mining district is situated between two prominent ridges of sandstone which bound the valley of Grand river, or the basin of Potosi. These ridges diverge in their course northward, and are intercepted by the Merameg, which receives the waters of Grand river, and forms a boundary to the mining district in that direction.
In Illinois are the richest lead mines in the world. The district which furnishes the ore, lies in the north-west part, and extends beyond the limits of the state. It comprises a tract of above two hundred miles in extent. The ore is inexhaustible. It lies in beds or horizontal strata, varying in thickness from one inch to several feet. It yields seventy-five per cent. of pure lead. For many years the Indians and hunters were accustomed to dig for the metal; they never penetrated much below the surface, but obtained great quantities of the ore, which they sold to the traders. The public attention was drawn to this quarter, and, from 1826 to 1828, the country was filled with miners, smelters, merchants, speculators, and adventurers. Vast quantities of lead were manufactured; the business was overdone, and the markets nearly destroyed. At present, the business is reviving, and in 1830, there were eight million three hundred and twenty-three thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight pounds of lead made at the mines. The whole quantity obtained, from 1821 to 1830, was forty million eighty-eight thousand eight hundred and sixty pounds. The principal mines are in the neighborhood of Galena.
Coal is found in the United States in great quantities, though the abundance of wood has hitherto impeded the working of the mines to their full capability. The coal found at different localities has been classed by Professor Eaton under the following heads: first, the genuine anthracite, or glance coal, found in the transition argillite, as at Worcester in Massachusetts, and Newport in Rhode Island; also in small quantities in