The Port Gibson herald, and correspondent., 1851-03-07

No. SSs
height of shout 1000 feet above the sea. Shaiis
were sunk with true Cornish spirit by the Eng
lish South American and Mexican Company,
and the veinstones, having been cut by several
shafts, and being very promising and rich near
the surface, did repay capital, and for some
years afforded a moderate ifiterest:-2in proceed.
ing, however, the gold thinned out entirely, and
the vein at last containing nothing but silver,
was abandoned. y 5
We have a very lively recollection Of the
Jumps and specimens Of gold which an Ataeri-
can gentleman brought TO London about twenty
years ago for the purpose OF forming North
Carolina Gold Company. BIT the fatal expert
ence ofthis good city in 1926, which bad drain
ed It of more wealth than was likely to be OBJ
tanned for many a year from all the mines in the
world, had inspired caution; and therefore, In
tinline, mining surveyor of high character
(Mr. John Taylor. Jr.) was sent ont to ascer-
tain what might be done if capital and skill were
embarked in this promising III Dorado which
the States had just acquired. He found, is
true, numerous faments and traces of gold IN
the pyrites and on the surfaces a. fhe rocks
enough perhaps to justly the poetieal describef
in stating that his horses feet were constantly
Taylor soon satisfied himself from natural APP
peafances, as well as from old trials. and those
in operation, that the veinstones held no badyof
ore downwards--and Thus, at the cost Of A few
hundred pounds, he saved a ruinous expenditure.
1t is in this way that all such speculations ought
to be conducted and the fact was soon proved in
the case OF another London company, which in
spite q. that good example, was led on By the
same decoy, and signally failed after very severe
losses. @
Not so, however where the gold-hunte=s hap
pen to fall in with virgin soil of old allnVium
derived from the former surfaces of productive
venstones. In this detritus, whether coarse or
fine, nature has performed the work which man
finds so costly and difficult of separating the
ore from Raleigh's strength of stone and its as
sociated alloys. Nay more-as the veinstones
have usually proved more rich towards their
upper portion, so it follows that the former SUR
face o. the rocks contained the cream of the ore
(f we may compare such veinstones 10 churns);
and as all the surface OF the earth has undergone
great abrasion and wearing away so The richest
parts Of the gold veins can never be found nj
stu, but must a priori be looked Cor just where
we ever find them,i. e. in the drift or coarse sn-
cient alluvium. 1t was consequently in this
rubbish or elluVial soil that the settlers of the
United States in the Carolinas and Georgia made
some tolerably profitable dggings. In a tract
several hundred miles long, extending from NJ
N. E. to S. S. W., which is in fact a southern
parallel of the great Appalachian chain, native
gold was found here and there in allnvia, depos-
its, while the rocky strata Of talcose and chlor-
itic schists contained quartz veins more or less
aunferous.
1t is not to be denied that Brazil does offer ex-
amples of successful subterraneous gold mines;
OF which we owe our most exact details to the
very graphic sketch of that region by an accom-
plished botanist Mr.. Gardner
But the fact which he mentions Of the scbists
SO penetrated by man (he Jacotinsa of the ma.
tives) being soft, and consequently easily worked
into, viii serve TO explain how that which may
be profitable occupation in limited tracts Of
| Brazil-a0here Stare labor abounds--would be
utterly impracticabla and valusless in another
region, where the rocks are hard and intractablei
and where treenlen alone work at high wages.
There are in Bolivia many other localities in
which gold washings occur, and notably the VAL
ley of Choque-apo, in which the capital La Paz
| is situated, and where the famous large pepits.
now in the Museum at Madrid, is said 10 have
been sound. 1t was obvious, however, to Mr..
Pentand that different mode OF working must
itdst uCGn IdStiScu ny tHatoto bt1.C
the conqupst,-thus he states that on the north
ern and steep declivity of the mountain llimann,
latitude l6 deg SO min south, the giant Of he
Bolivian Cordillera, the face Of the cliff, called
La Gallofa, is literally honey .combed BY innu-
merable small mining openngs;-the practical
comment being that although it mightsu:t In rs
to employ thousands of poor Peruvian slGDes to
5urrow into the hard rock, the work was alter
wards found to be absolutely proftless as com
pared with washings.
We are further entitled TO say, that The gen+
eral gold cannot be extracted with advantage
by man from its parent site. owing to its usual
minute diffusion through large bodies Of rock,
which the grand forces Of nature alone can SUI
ficently triturate.
In respect to California, we have yet seen no
accounts Of any notable product Of gold, except
from the piateaux of ancient drift or ailuvinm
through which the Rio de los Americanos, the
Stanislaus, the Tuwalumne, the Merccd, the
Mariposa, and Kings River how-all Of them
tributaries of the Sacramento and San Joaquin.
The spots or p!acers which are highly auriferous
are peculiarly distinguished, say MIR. Lyman
and others, by most copious distribution Of
detritus of quartz rock in the fragments of
which, and associated with which, the gold is
usually found Now this quartz is, as 10 other
countries nothing but the brnken-np yeinstones
that traverse the saty rocks, which resting in
natural masses against mica schists and gneiss,
are finally fianked by noble mountains Of granite
constituting he peaks of the Sierra Nevada.
Justly conceivng this detritus to be the result
Of former grand debacles--Iike those 10 which
we have alluded as having produced our COM
mon gravel Of Europe and the gold and mans
moth debris of Siberia-Mr. Lyman seems to
have been puzzled to find the parent rock of all
these heaps Of quartz rubbish and their associ-
ated gold, 1t is true that he soon saw plenty of
quartz yeinstones in stu, apparently rising up
from the bowels of the earth and cutting through
all the strata: but as he detected little or no gold
in them, he could not exactly make up bis mind
that they had furnished ihs ore. It never oc-
Cured to him that if these veinstones happened
to have been chiefly auriferous near their upper
parts. they would not unfrequently present in
their now exposed and abradea parts much OF
what he was in search Of
At Gibralter there was a great scarcity
of water. An Irish officer said: ssIie was
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