to prevent adulteration of a metal, most of which must be coined at their mint, and to give protection to the purchasers of gold, and value to it as a medium of exchange. This, it is supposed, may be done by directing the Mint to establish an assaying officer in the gold country, who shall examine all bars of gold presented to him, and if found pure shall put on it the mint stamp, at the same time leaving it entirely optional with every person to obtain the stamp or not, as he pleases.

It may be interesting to learn the present production of these mines. From the best information that could be procured from all the mines in North and South Carolina in October last, the monthly product was found to be at least $50,000, making an annual product of about six hundred thousand dollars. Every day is bringing to light new and rich mines; and, in October last, not one-fourth of the mines then discovered were in operation. At the old works, more extensive means were about to be employed: science was lending its aid to the former slovenly manual process, while new mines are every day opening, and new works erecting, to carry on the business upon an extended scale. There seems to exist no doubt among those best acquainted with the subject, that in another year the annual product of gold in North and South Carolina will exceed two millions of dollars.

CHARLOTTE, 27th March, 1830.

SIR: I acknowledge the honor I have had to receive your letter of 3d ult. in which, as chairman of a select committee, you request information concerning the gold mines of North Carolina.

Before I reply more particularly to the queries you have put, I would state that recent correspondence with the Hon. Charles Fisher, of Salisbury, assures me, he is occupied in preparing quite an extended view of the present condition of the mining interest in the several counties, with some account of the first discoveries of gold in deposite and vein, to be with other remarks submitted to the Hon. the chairman, in such form as may, if judged fitting, be annexed to the committee's report. Mr Fisher's means of information, since the commencement of mining operations in this State have been so superior, his attention so unremittingly attracted to their progressive advance, his knowledge and estimates so accurate, and his public life has given him such favorable notoriety as authority for his communications, that, informed, as I am, of his purpose, it would seem obtrusive in me to go over the same, either anticipating or following him; and it will be unnecessary to give my few observations any formal shape.

Referring to your question of "What amount of gold it may be estimated has been derived from the mines during the past year?" it is obvious that the Mint and Bank reports being only items, rather than amounts, and when much is consumed in the arts, much exported in bullion, and much purloined passes through secret channels, any estimates must be to a great degree conjectural. In the course of a tour through the gold mining districts, made during the last summer, I endeavored to ascertain the then weekly yield, and thought that putting the washings and vein works of Anson, Cabarras, Guilford, Montgomery and Davidson, at three thousand dwts, Mecklenburg at four thousand, Lincoln, Burke and Rutherford, at three thousand dwts., would not be overrating. Indeed, it was within your knowledge that Brindle's mine, in Burke alone, was reputed to be yielding two thousand dwts. and upwards per week.

In reply to your second and fourth question, "Do the improvements in machinery, the expense in the process of working, &c. promise an increase in the products of the present year," and with the products of the mines be an increased ratio during the present and past year?" it certainly is reasonable to calculate that the products of the mines, that is of the deposites and washings, will be in an increased ratio during the past and present year; and it could be little better than impertinent for me to state to you, as a matter of information, the almost incredible accessions that in a very short space of time have been made of capital, of numbers, of character, and good management, directed towards this branch of mining, both in the section of country you immediately represent and elsewhere.

The product of the vein works are, however, dependent upon such different principles, that it is not easy to fix upon any comparative ratio of in-. crease for so limited a period as one or two years. For such a space of time, it is probable, that, if an increasing confidence shall induce the application of large capitals and requisite skill in using them, the proprietors would be contented to defer the expectation of deriving profit from their investments until the developments of the veins and establishments for extraction were carried far enough to warrant continued and regular results, instead of the fluctuations which must be consequent upon too much impatience to derive a return from outlays. In fact, since the commencement of mining upon the veins, had those engaged felt more assurance on the same assurance which is now felt in it as a business, less would have been withdrawn from the works, and the establishments at the present time have been in a situation and efficiency adapted to and justified by existing circumstances.

To say nothing of the large amount of capital now employed in this country, where, two years ago, scarcely a dollar was risked, it is to be expected that the capitalists of Europe will soon turn towards mining North Carolina a part of the sums which have hitherto been expended in Mexico and South America, and the mines will certainly afford profitable employment for that large proportion of the slaves in North and South Carolina and Georgia who have been for years past a burdensome expense, instead of a source of profit, to their owners, so that the constant and rapid accumulation of capital, and of knowledge and capacity to direct its application, is perhaps the surest indication of the future prospects this State has in her inestimable mines. Much has been done in a space of time very short, and under more than usual embarrassments of new undertakings; the field for extending and progressive operations is ample, the means of subsistence abundant, and the climate mild and healthful, and all the materials for mining, or after processes of reduction, cheap and inexhaustible.

Nothing could have tended so effectually or speedily to develop and turn to account the various but hitherto unproductive and neglected resources of the State, than their needed application to mining purposes. Industry and enterprise have been roused, and high rewards offered to mechanical skill, and a ready sale for agricultural produce, where before a large population were singularly inert, and discouraged, from want of seaports, of internal communications, of manufactures, of any profitable staple, or of any stimulus to exertion.

But it is not to her own representative, lately among us, that I need speak of the past or of present prospects.

I am, Sir, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant.

Hon. S. P. CARSON, Ho. Reps.

J. H. BISSELL.

SWANN PONDS, BURKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA,

April 3, 1830.

DEAR SIR: Have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your circular of the 3d February. In answer to your first inquiry, have to state, that I have not been engaged, to any extent, in working of the deposite mines during the past year; my attention having been principally directed to raising ore from a vein mine in the county of Rutherford, in which the Messrs. Carsons and myself are concerned, and in erecting machinery, to be impelled by water power, for grinding the ore and vein dirt; we expect it to go into operation in all the month of May, and are sanguine of success.

The following data and remarks will afford the best answer to the three last inquiries that I am enabled to give. Twelve months ago, there had not been collected in the county of Burke $500 worth of gold.

There has been placed to my credit, with the S. Bank of North Carolina, at Raleigh, since the 31st of July last, when I commenced purchasing for that institution, upwards of 30,000 dwts. of gold bullion, at 84 cents the dwt.; all which has been exclusively collected in Burke. A conjectural estimate only can be formed of the proportion which this amount bears to the whole that has been collected within the county: it certainly does not exceed 20 per cent. my present purchases exceed, on an average, $100 per day.

Experience is daily adding to the product of the mines that have been worked with any thing like system; and while some of the poorer deposites are abandoned, others, more promising and extensive, are daily discovered. The fact, that numbers of our most intelligent, wealthy, and enterprizing citizens from the eastern and middle counties of the State, after personal examination, are withdrawing their slaves entirely from the cultivation of cotton and tobacco, and removing them to the deposite mines in this county, while it proves conclusively the importance they are destined to assume, prevents even an approximation to ultimate results.

The discoveries of gold here, thus far, have been made by men who have only a practical knowledge of mining, acquired by a few months' experience. The country, I may say, is unexplored by the eye of science. They have proved, by discoveries already made, that, in addition to the deposites, veins of rich gold ore abound in the secondary chain of mountains and hills which traverse this section of the country east of the Alleghany. The facts, in this instance, are in consonance with geological deductions; and, reasoning from analogy, it is these veins that are to give permanency to the mining interests in this country.

The general want of science on mining subjects, and want of capital, have thus far, and may for some time, retard the working of the veins extensively. But the capital and enterprise necessary to develop, in some measure, the resources of the country, are concentrating in the mining region.

And while interest and patriotism dictate the wish, facts induce the belief; that, in this, as in every other pursuit to which American skill and enterprise have been fairly directed, the success will outrun the calculations of the statesman and political economist; that this new, and to us all important, interest would be greatly promoted and encouraged by the establishment among us of a branch of the mint, or office for assaying our gold, and ascertaining its value, there can be no doubt. It is for Congress in their wisdom to determine whether this boon will be granted; it is the only one which western North Carolina, with all the disadvantages she has heretofore labor

ed under, has ever sought of the General Government. You will pardon me, Sir, if I have been more diffuse than the scope of your inquiries would seem to warrant; it is because the chairman of the committee is lost sight of in addressing my immediate representative and personal friend.

With great respect,

The Honorable S. P. CARSON,

Your friend and obedient servant,
ISAAC T. AVERY.

Chairman of the select committee, &c.

Extract of a letter from John A. Jones, Esq., to Col. Thomas Foster, dated Milledgeville, (Georgia,) 23d November, 1830.

SIR: Your letter bearing date Greensboro', 19th inst. desiring information on the subject of the gold mines, and the propriety of establishing & mint, or a branch of the mint, in the gold regions of the south, was received by me yesterday, and been reflected on as the subject demands.

I regret that it is not in my power to give you more definite information as to the gold mines of Georgia, but I have it not. Indeed, I do not believe the information you desire can be obtained, entitled to higher pretensions than conjecture; and as such I pray you consider most of what I shall say.

You no doubt are aware that some gold was found in Habersham county, in the spring or early in the summer of 1829; from thence the examinations extended into Hall. From an examination of the map, and a recollection of the relative position of the geological strata of rock and minerals known to exist from Maryland south, I was induced to believe that the gold region extended as far south as the termination of the Blue Ridge in the Cherokee country; and, having some interest in Carroll county, I determined to examine my lands there. With this view, Mr. Howard, the controller, and I, visited Carroll in March, 1830; but on our arrival we found ourselves destitute of information; that, although we were well satisfied of the existence of gold in the county, we were obliged to return without making any discoveries. In April we visited Hall and Habersham, for information. From that country I returned through Carroll, and found that several persons had made valuable discoveries in different places. About the middle of June they commenced operations in the county, and I presume that since then three hundred men, on an average, have been engaged, and have realized a product of $2 50 per day to the hand. I know many statements have been made, of a greater number of hands and more profitable product, but I have always believed them exaggerated.

The gold region of Georgia extends from the northern parts of Carroll to the ridge which divides the southern and western waters, a distance of more than 100 miles. It is to be found in rich veins, in every description of soil, from the rich black loam to the barren sands of the pure mountains, and in juxtaposition with every description of rock known to that region of country; and although a great deal is said about gold blossom, and much stress has been laid on signs, the principal knowledge which I have obtained from experience is, that no signs are to be relied on. I have searched for the metal in vain, where every external and internal appearance indicated abundance; and I have found it in rich and poor land-level and broken landland covered with various kind of stone, and on land with no stone at all. With

regard to our prospects, I have no doubt very heavy profits will be realized; and although some, who are so unfortunate as to make bad locations, will lose money, yet to the mass of persons engaged in mining it must necessarily prove the best business we have ever been engaged in.

Extract of a letter from Major Trippe to the Hon. Thomas F. Foster, dated Clarkesville, Habersham county, Georgia, December 7, 1850.

DEAR SIR: Agreeably to your request, I will now undertake to give you some account of the mining operations for gold in this part of the country, the extent to which they are carried on, and the probable prospects of those engaged in this business. Early in the winter and spring of the year 1829, a few persons, who had some knowledge of the mining districts in North Carolina, from the great similarity of situation, soil, and geological formation of the earth in this country, were induced to believe that gold might be discovered here, and commenced to search for it. Their success was not great, and they were regarded as visionary, enthusiastic misers; but their small success encouraged others to search, and they very soon began to develop the resources of the country. The discovery of Powell and Richardson's mines, and the immense gains of the operators in them, caused the whole country to commence a most general, persevering, and indefatigable search for the precious metal.

It was carried into the county of Hall, and extended, in a short time, to the Cherokee nation, at least to that part of it bordering on the counties of Hall and Habersham. The gold is discovered in the western parts of those counties, principally in the gravel, next underneath the upper stratum of alluvial earth in the bottoms of the rivers, creeks, and branches, and not unfrequently on the ridges, and in every variety of soil. There have been some discoveries made of what the miners term vein mines, as contradistinguished from surface mines beforementioned, and which vein mines are regarded as much the most valuable and productive, and require greater expense of machinery to pound up the rock and extract the gold. There are none of these yet in operation, the experiments being confined altogether to the surface and deposite mines

The gold has been discovered, principally, in a tract of country in the western part of this county, and of Hall, and extending through the southeastern part of the Cherokee nation, and into the county of Carroll, embracing an extent of country in length, from northeast to southwest, of about one hundred and fifty miles, and varying from a very few to fifteen or twenty miles in width. In all this whole extent of country, I apprehend that the operations of the gold miners, even in the Cherokee nation, have been merely experiments, and that the business is but in its infancy. It is doubtful, and probably always will remain so, whether those engaged in this business will generally prosper, and whether a majority of them are not engaged in a losing concern; yet, in the aggregate, they are collecting together, and constantly sending away, an immense quantity of gold bullion. Of the probable quantity, I can give you no account upon which you ought to rely; but if you were to call upon some of the merchants or brokers in Augusta, who