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GOLD 5IIXIXG l~S KOETH CAROLINA.
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Pilot mountain, Braekettown, and Vein mountain, to and beyond the Second Broad river.
-i. The Golden valley zone, passing across the upper end of the Golden valley (valley of the First Broad river) and crossing Cane and Camp creeks to the Second Broad river.
5. The Idler mine zone, about 3 miles north of Rutherfordton.
The great majority of these auriferous quartz-veins are too small to be profitably worked individually. Of the larger and more promising veins which have been worked, the " Xichols," at Vein mountain (18 inches to 3 feet), and the "Idler," near Rutherfordton (22 inches), may be mentioned.
THE PLACEE DEPOSITS.
The principal mining ground of the South mountain region is that of the placer deposits. These are of three classes: 1. The gravel deposits of the stream-beds and bottom-lands, deposited by fluviatile action. 2. The gulch and hillside deposits, or accumulations due to secular disintegration and motion induced by frost action and gravity. 3. The upper decomposed layer of the country-rock in place, the saprolites.
In the first class the gravel is water-worn, rounded to subangular, and the deposits are from 1 to 2 feet in thickness. In the second class the gravel is usually quite angular, and the deposits are from a few inches to several feet in thickness. In the third class gravel is of course absent, the washable ground consisting of the upper decomposed layer in place, the gold being derived directly from the partially disintegrated quartz-veins.
5. MINOR BELTS IN NORTH CAROLINA.
On the west side of the Blue Bidge, in Henderson county, X. C, gold has been mined at the Boylston mine. The country rocks are fine-grained mica- and hornblende-schists, in part much cnnnpled. The general strike is X. 20°-30° E., and the dip is X. \Y. The schists are cut by a granite dike. The valley of Boylston creek is made up of schistose limestone, underlying these crumpled schists. These rocks are probably to be classed in the Ocoee, which by some is supposed to be Algonkian and by others Paleozoic, and by others still, it is believed to contain formations of different ages ranging between these two. This isolated belt, however, has little economic importance in connection with gold deposits.
Another belt of auriferous rocks is that in which some unimportant placer-mining operations have been prosecuted in Swain, Jackson, Macon, Clay, and Cherokee counties, X. C. The country-rock is supposed to be largely Ocoee. In Tennessee the petty stream deposits of
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