The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-01

been glad to have received 50 or "a per
acre for this land.
There is more gold in the south than
any man ever imagined. Traces of 1t crop
up in the most unexpected places, and
there must be some valuable veins hid
away in the mountains that will some day
be discovered and startle the country.
Cripple Creek will be nothing to the
southern gold fields after they have been
located. 1t seems strange, but the
fact is nevertheless true, that the south
has never been thoroughly examined for
mineral and gold products. Before the
war everybody went west to find gold,
and the south was given over to cotton,
tobacco, sugar and rice. After the war
closed nothing was done for a long time
to develop the industries of the southern
states, but now we are beginning to real
lie that great undeveloped field spreads
out before us. There are scores of gold
prospectors travelling through the noun
tains of the south, looking for treasures
that are sure to come to light some day.
People speak about the future supply of
gold being found in Africal Why, more
gold is buried in the Appalachian range
of mountains than they will find in Africa
in the next hundred years. But the noun
tains are so vast, and the region so little
known, that it will take time to locate
the best mines even after the prospectors
another thing about the southern mines
is that many of the most precious stones
have been picked up at various points, and
where such jewels are spread out on the
surface you can rest assured that there
art others further down under the ground.
For instance, at Corundum hill some beau
tiful saphires have been found. Here
are some that 1 secured from a miner
They were not mining for sapphires, but
ha tn Mol har txbf INF
for ores. over one hundred sapphires
have been found at this place and most of
them are valued at $50 to 500 and upwards.
But sapphires are not by any means the
only precious stones found in the south.
Genuine diamonds have been found in
North Carolina, and one miner secured a
precious gem that sold for $780, In South
Carolina and Georgia fine specimens of
emeralds have also been taken from the
ore mines. In fact, we have two mines
that have recently been started for the
purposes of digging out the emeralds, for
both the aQua-marine and the yellow beryl
are found. In the last five years nearly
$4,000 worth of emeralds have been mined
and they are among the best ever discov-
cred in America Garnets, of course, are
scattered all over these rich auriferous
fields, and we pick up such large genuine
specimens that they prove very valuable.
Ordinary small garnets are not worth
much, but when you can mine them as big
as a birds egg you are sure to find pro-
fitable market for them. In Virginia gar
nets of wonderful size and brilliancy have
been taken, and the coal fields of Ala
bama and Tennessee also abound in these
products. Small specimens of diamonds
have been found in Georgia, and there are
undoubtedly whole districts that could be
proftably mined for these precious stones.
THE fact is that we have a country
capable of producing all the precious
stones known to science, but so much at
tention has been given to the mining of
iron coal, oil, silver and gold that the
more precious products of the rocks have
been neglected / remember distinctly in
California, when the gold fever was at its
hight, miners threw up several fairly good
specimens of diamonds, but in their craze
for the yellow metal they paid no atten-
ton to the precious stones. They knew
all about gold mining, but nothing about
diamonds. Now that the gold fields have
been exhausted, l guess many of them
wished they had stopped and pocketed
some of the precious stones they threw
away. If we made as thorough prepara-
ton for diamond mining as they do in
South Africa, we would find this country
much richer in materials than anybody
anticipates A company has recently been
organized to develop the mines Of pre-
cious stones In the south, and 1t has a