IN NORTH CAROLINA.
North Carolina contains a larger portion of Azoic formation than any other State. Not less than half its territory contains these rocks, while the remainder is made up of recent and Plutonic. The entire Piedmont district is gneissic, extending from the piny barrens of the east to the mountains ; but this portion, though rich in gold, lead, cop per, zinc, and coal, contains but a limited amount of iron for practical purposes. It is to her present almost inaccessible mountains that North Carolina must look for her supply of iron; and there the supply is unlimited, A good topographical map of North Carolina will portray a vast mountain-region lying along the head of the streams and between the waters of the east and those of the west. Along the eastern foot of this great mountain-range are two parallel de posits of ore (we can scarcely call them beds, and yet perhaps they are such), which produce a fine, close-grained, black oxide of iron of the magnetic variety. These beds are not generally large, but regular, and productive of a pure ore, yielding 70 per cent. of metallic iron, or as much as it is possible for an oxide of this class to yield. The ore is generally massive, but frequently granular or friable, and looks like fine black sand on being mined. This variety is much used in the Catalan forges of the mountain regions described; and, from a personal knowledge of the iron produced, either from the ore direct or from the pig iron of the charcoal furnaces, we can say without hesitation that the world can produce none better, whether from Danemora or elsewhere.
These ranges of ore are very extensive, and in all probability extend from the Virginia line to Georgia. But the points most developed are in the vicinity of Wilkesborough on the Yadkin, Morgantown on the Catawba, and Rutherfordton on Broad River. Near or above Morgantown are some extensive iron-works, which produced a large quantity of superior iron during the rebellion. But, as this range of ore is coextensive with this vast mountain-range, there are other points more available for future use than those named ; and one of these is on Smith's River and vicinity, a little to the west of Greensborough and Wentworth. This region is peculiarly rich in minerals, and magnetic and red oxides of iron are abundant, while further to the west are unlimited deposits of copper. This copper region appears to lie in a later formation than that containing the magnetic, and may be referred to the Lower Silurian or Palseozoic, as recognized in portions of the great basin; but we think it is truly Azoic, or so highly metamorphic as to contain no fossils of the ancient life.
The copper region is peculiar. It is embraced in a series of basins lying between the Blue Ridge proper on the west, or the Potsdam sandstone, and the so-called Alle ghanies, or Blue Ridge, on the east.* The formation is made up of a frequent recur rence of the upper gneissic strata, and contains several parallel ranges of copper beds. The "gassan" or "iron hat" of these beds often exists in masses of red and brown oxides of great value; while the outcrops of the copper can be traced for many miles in unbroken lines by the masses of iron ore lying on the surface. This great copper
region extends from the point of intersection, or where the mountains unite to the north in Central Virginia, to where they meet again to the south in Georgia, and includes the rich deposits of Southwestern Virginia and the celebrated Hiawassee mines in East Tennessee. This entire region, extending along the geological strike of the lithological formations a distance of nearly 500 miles, and from east to west from 50 to 100 miles, is eminently a mountain-district, and in no part of our country this side of the Rocky Mountains are they piled in such grand yet uniform order. Our maps give no idea of their topographical or physical arrangement, and to our geologists, generally, they remain a terra incognita. But, from personal investigation, we hazard but little in stating that no mineral region within the limits of the great basin is richer in the ores of copper and iron.
At the point where this great Azoic region is penetrated by the waters of the New River, these ores will be available to the coals of the Great Kanawha, and nature seems to have paved or levelled the way through the otherwise impassable mountain-barriers from those vast coal-fields on the Great Kanawha to the unlimited beds of ore that lie on its upper waters.
Not only do the development of this rich mineral region and the inexhaustible supply of ores to the coals of Kanawha depend on the avenues which may be constructed from one to the other; but the connection of the railroad system of North Carolina with the rivers and railroads of the West must take this route. The passes of the New River are the natural highway of trade from the East to the West, and the iron horse will yet wake their echoes as he speeds in triumphant progress from the waters of Vir ginia and the mountains of North Carolina to the "Golden Gate" of the Pacific.
The ores of the Azoic belt of North Carolina are not entirely confined to the mountain region described. Considerable quantities exist in detached masses, in thin, scattered beds, or seams, through the wide gneissic range which lies between the North Carolina coal measures and this mountain region. These ores are magnetic, red oxides, and brown hematites. The magnetics exist in thin seams, or small scattered beds, both east and west of the small limestone range which traverses this gneissic belt. The ores in the vicinity of this saccharoid or crystalline altered limestone are generally brown hematites, and exist in bunches or nests to a limited extent. The red oxides are generally the outcrops of copper veins, &b. But these ores are limited, and cannot be considered of any great commercial value.
The mountain-region described is eminently a mineral region, densely timbered, and extremely inviting to the manufacturers of charcoal iron.