The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-08-22
vuKGuNuA,s MINERAL WEALTH.
A Tour Through the Gold Regions Of
the Old Domiuiou--Eu -Euormous Depes-


Correspondence of the World.
DOVER Mills, Goochland Co.. Va,
| August ID
| I have ilIst arrived n this place on MY
| Nay home from one of the most interest
ing and instructive trips ever enjoyed
in nv life have rambled over the best
portions of Goochland Fluvenua, and
| birmingham counties mixed freely With
their people in all conditions of life, and
| witnessed an amount of mineral wealth
of which ynn in the North have not the
remotest conception an ar"ounf oi
wealth quite equal to. if not, IA, soina in.
stances, SURPRISING, anything 10 he found
| in California / know that much VI
what am about to tell yon may be re-
ceived with incredulity; bat facts are
stubborn things, and nothing is easier
than for those who doubt me 70 come
here and look with their own eyes.
That Virginia contains the precious
| metals, every geolOgist and minerai0glsf
has been long aware and there can be
but few intelligent readers who are igno-
| rant of the fact that enormous fortunes
| have been extracted from isolated places
| of wide repiltatiOu-snch for instance
| As the London mine, in Buckingham
county, in this State But very few, j
| venture to say, know the vast amount OF
treasure which runs through Virginia IN
her entire length--a distance of not less
| than than two hundred miles. by at least
sixty miles in width
In that magnificent belt of richness, re-
vesled to her by the same mighty con
vulslou which heaved the Biue-rldge
chain of mountains from her womb, are
to he found, in the greatest abundance,
gold, silver, copper, iron, platinum. Gin
nabad, lead, plnmbage, tin, coal. roofing
slate of the most durable kind, marble OF
the rarest beauty and perfection
and a variety of other yalua-
BILE mineral substances svch as gypsum.
limestone, soap-stone, TOMBSTONE, equal
to anything Turkey ever produced
long for enumeration.
yly present tour has led me through
places containing, in large quantities,
many of the above-named minerals, but
principally gold copper, lead, aud roof
ing slate have myself visited and eX-
amined, mnuteiy, in company with three
of the most eminent mineralogists IN the
United States, over twenty-five different
mines Every one Of these abound in the
most precious ores. AT some al these
the owners have hitherto been content
with merely surface-waShing although
millions Of dollars are laying inVitingly
uEder their very feet. AT Others they
have sunk a shaft or two short depth
into the earth and then abandoned the
work at the very time it was just conl-
mencing to yield in earnest, content with
the thousands of dollars which their ne.
groes had dug out so easily for them, and
unmindfnl of the fact-which every mi.
ner knows well-that the real wealth of
a gold or copper mine usually increases
in ratio to its depth in the solid rock.
have not seen o shaft here eXcavated
deeper than sixty feet, yet 10 California
some have already been sunk to depth
of over 800 feet All these mines may,
therefore, be said to he literally I'M
tonchcd do not exaggerate when !
say that came 10 many places where,
over q space OF many acres. every piece
of rock. each handful Of soil. contained
more or less of the precious metal, and
would abundantly pay for washing or
crushing ! came to many and abondon'
ed mines where, after all the apparently
good pieces of ore had been carried of,
the loose rocks left behind rs mere rub
bish, were teeming with golden part''
cles.
IT is. | believe. allowed among miners
that ten cents per bushel will repay the
labor aud expense of crushing rock for
gold; but there are few gold veins ! Wis
tied in Virginia that do not yield easily
from one to two pennyweight (do'lars)
per bushel of ore One of them, particu-
larry, the Belloro mine, in Gooclfland
county has yielded as much as three
hundred dollars day from one crushing
machine only. and frequently one hun,
dred dollars day from six ordinary
stamps Nuggets of gold, worth from
fnui to seven dollars each, have been ire,
auently picked up on its surface The
same enormous mineral wealth is we'll
known to!sxist through that whole region
for found and saw abundant evidences
of it at the Tellurium, Marks, Walter,
Lowery, Johnson, Hughes, Eades- and
Collins minesJ ia the same county OF
Goochland; at the Moseby. Chalk-level
Fountain, HCox aud Sands's mines III
Fluyanna county, and also at the Light
foot, Ford, Hobson, and Apperson mines
in Buckingham county
49,