The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-07-10

and is regarded as the best grazing county
Carroll has the most sheep and Floyd thu
most swine. Fruit and tobacco grow finely i
this region, and their culture is profitabl
and rapidly Increasing.
1--WE have already spoken OF the peculia
characteristics Of the soils of the Blue Ridg
and its enclosed plateau, the remarkable
fertility OF which is due to the more rapi
and complete decomposition Of the rock
than occurs in more northern latitudes and
as Hotchkss points cut, to the large amour
of epidote or greensboro, they contain.
+ find in my note book the following extrac
from a note Of 7. Sterry Hunt, on page 25|
OF his Chemical and Geological Essays NJ
own observations have since shown me tina
the rocks of the White mountain series are
largely displayed. and rarely at high angles
in the Blue Ridge, in Carroll county, Va.
thence southwestward at least as far as Ashe
county, North Carolina, and again in POLL
county, Tenn. Tie Theological study in
these regions is rendered difficult by the fact
that they are covered, often to the depth OIL
hundred feet or more, by the undisturbed
products of their own decomp, sition, the
protoxide basis having been removed by so.
luton from the feldspar and hornblende,
and the whole rock, with the exception oil
the quartzose layers, reduced to clayey
mass, still, however, showing the inclined
planes of qualification. Here, then, are
elements OF agricultural fertility not to be
exhausted for century to come, and the
luxuriant perennial grasses and heavy tim
Der are proofs, patent to every EYE. OF
course, not all of these broad acres are rich
and fertile, and some poor belts are also
found.
"But the mineral resources OF this sectio n
are perhaps even greater than the aglicul-
tural. General Clineman was won't to say
that Ashe county was naturally the richest
territory, Of equal size. in the world; and
the other counties of the Blue Ridge plateau
are OF similar character. Their deposits of
gold, silver, copper, iron, lin great variety,
but particularly magnetic and specular ores
suited to the manufacture of steeD graphite,
galenite, steatite, agalmatoite, muscovite,
asbestos, marble, etc., are very extensive
and valuable, and will be rapidly developed
with the improvement of transportation
facilities. The veins of copper are particu-
larly valuable, being the largest, richest
and nearest to tidewater and market OF any,
yet known, while the ease with which the
ores are mined and worked render them
nearly or quite as profitable as the native
copper mines OF Lake Superior. These
veins extend, with considerable pers:stency,
from Floyd county, Virginia, to Alabama,
the principal developments being at Duck
town, Tennessee, and at Ore Knob, Elk
Knob, and Peach Bottom, North Carolina.
The vein at Ore Knob, which was sold in
lS4S for Sill, is from twelve to fourteen feet
wide, with nearly vertical dip, and yields
from twelve to twenty per cent. OF metallic
copper. Shafts have been sunk nearly five
hundred feet deep, and a gallery six hun
dred and thirty feet in length runs along the
strike OF the vein, every foot of excavation
representing so much output Of ore, so that
there is no waste work. These mines are
operated by the Messrs. Clayton 81 Co., OF
Baltimore, with working capital of three
millions, and about 1850 pounds of copper
ingots are produced daily by the Hunt
Douglass process of concentration. The red
peroxide of iron produced in this process is
q q h1t
worthless, on account of the great cost of
transportation. At Peach Bottom, nearer
the Virginia line, the copper sulphurets are
associated with argentiferous galena, the
silver averaging about sixty dollars per ton,
whilea single specimen assayed by Prof.
Dean yielded $3.50 OF silver per ton. This
mine is now being cleaned out, and is,
think. in the market.
The continuation Of this vein in Carol
county is thus described in a valuable paper
read by C. R. Boyd, before the American
Institute of American Engineers, at Phi.a-
delphia, in 1876: "This pyritous lode is
marked by extraordinary quantities of lin
onite varying between twenty and forty
feet in Depth by width Of from sixty to a
hundred and fifty feet, in many parts hold
ing, according to DR.. f. A. Genth, about
fifty per cent of metallic iron. 1t was first
ascertained to be the mere outcrop, or iron
cap of pyritous lode holding copper, by
the precipitation of that metal OH the iron
and steel of the tools with which it was
mined for forge and foundry purposes; and
finally when few feet of depth had been
reached, by showing the green crystals of
the carbonate of capper. Under the iron cap
marked in its lower part by carbonate of
copper. which varies in quantity from one
point to another, suggesting the idea that
the vein alternates in richer and poorer cop
per ores, there is, as usual. in such veins, a
bed of the black oxide Of copper, accompa-
MED by copper glance, the vertical thickness
of which. observed at two points, is respec-
lively two feet and three feet. giving in its
best ore by DR.. Genth's analysis, 5l.53 per
cent. metallic copper. and q .0S per cent as
its poor average. Next below are the py-
rishotite and copper pyrites, accompanied
by aelinoti:e and chlorites, and calcspar in
small quantities. The copper pyrites yield,
according to the same analyst, from strictly
poor average, IL per cent OF metallic cop
per and 0.SG per cent from another average,
leaving no doubt of the great economical
value Of the lode at a point on Chestnut
creek, in Carol county, where had the best
opportunity to examine it. Here the lode has
a thickness varying between forty five feet
and over one hundred feet, inclosed in tai
cose and micaeous states and schists.' Prof.
L. Sterry Hunt, describing the Ore Knob
mines ia the Engineering and Mining Jour
nal, spoke Of them as unprecedented in the
| history of copper mining, and expressed the
opinion that the Carroll and FLOYD mines
were scarcely, if at all, less valuable.
Breaking through tie Iron or Unaka
Mountains, which mark the boundary OF the
archaen rocks, the New River, here with a
volume estimated by Boyd, at fifteen hun
dred cubic feet per second at low water, en-.
tiers the Great Valley and crosses it in an ir-
regular & upward tortuous northerly course,
receiving many tributaries on its way. The