fine-grained, mica- and hornblende-gneisses and schists, in part much crumpled, striking X. 20°-30° E., and dipping 35°-60° AT.AV. The quartz-veins coincide, more or less, with the strike of the schists. The mine has been opened by a series of shallow shafts and short drifts on one of these veins, which is from 3 to 4 feet in thickness, with a paystreak of 1 to 3 inches on the hanging; it is accompanied, in places, by a granitic dike. The ores are reported to average about $4 per ton (assay value); sulphurets occur, chiefly pyrite and some chalcopyrite. A 10-stamp mill (in bad repair) stands on the property. It has not been in use since 1889.
MINES IN THE MOUNTAIN COUNTIES.
In the northwestern corner of Xorth Carolina, the copper ores of some of the Ashe county mines, and some small galena-bearing veins in Watauga and Wilkes counties, are auriferous.
In the southwestern corner of the State (in Jackson, Swain, and Cherokee counties) some placer-mining operations have been carried on from time to time, notably in Georgetown valley, Jackson county, and about the headwaters and other tributaries of Valley river, in Cherokee county, but nowhere successfully on a very large scale.
Gold is also stated to occur in Macon county, and this may be a northern extension of the Georgia belt (see p. 21).
In Horse Cove, Macon county, the Amnions Branch mine has recently been explored, with the showing of a 10-inch quartz-vein, from which very rich specimens have been taken.
In the southern part of Clay county the AYarne mine is situated at the northeastern extremity of a small belt of auriferous quartz-veins which extends southwesterly into Towne county, Ga. (For description see p. 84).
