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GOLD MINING IN NORTH CAROLINA.
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peper, Stafford, Orange, Spottsyfvania, Louisa, Fluvanna, Goochland and Buckingham counties.
THE COUNTRY-ROCKS.
The rocks of the Virginia belt are mica-gneisses and schists, often garnetiferous, hydro-micaceous and chloritic. The strike is X. 20o-303 E., and the dip easterly at varying angles. Mr. S. F. Emmons1 gives the prevailing strike in Montgomery county, Maryland, as north and south, and the dip nearly vertical or very slightly inclined to the eastward. Granite and diabase dikes occur in the region, and these are sometimes sheared. In some private notes on the Arminius pyrite mine, in Louisa county, Va., Mr. Becker says:
" The principal country rock is a series of micaceous schists.....Indications are not wanting that a portion of these schists is of sedimentary origin. .... On the other hand, it is equally certain that the most prominent characteristics of the schists are of dynamic origin. . . . Much of the schist looks as if it were derived dynamically from granite."
THE QUARTZ-VEINS.
The auriferous quartz-veins conform in the main to the strike and dip of the enclosing rock. However, their origin is not coeval, the schistose structure antedating the formation of the veins. Neither must their approximate conformity to the country be taken in the absolute sense, for they often cut the schists at small angles both in dip and strike. The structure of the veins is irregularly lenticular, varying from a few inches to several feet in thickness. The wall-rock is often impregnated with auriferous pyrites to considerable extent. Some of these veins are of remarkable persistency and continuity, as, for instance, the Fisher lode in Louisa county, which has been opened for a distance of some five miles along the strike to a maximum depth of 220 feet by the "Warren Hill, Louisa, Slate Hill, Luce and Harris mines.
The gravel placer deposits of the Virginia belt are in all respects similar to those of other gold regions.
A small isolated gold belt is situated on the west side of the Blue .Ridge in Montgomery, Floyd and Grayson counties, but it is of little economical importance and will not warrant more than this passing mention. The auriferous copper ores of Ashe and AVatauga counties, X. C., also appear to belong here.
2. THE EASTERN CAROLINA BELT.
This forms a small and narrow area in Halifax, Warren, Xash and Franklin counties. It is covered on the east by the Coastal Plain and
'"Noteson the Gold-Deposits of Montgomery county, Md.," by S. F. Emmons. Tram. Am. Inst. yiin. Eng., xviii, 391-411.
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