Page 392 - us_mineralresources1885

376 MINERAL RESOURCES.

from the surface, and so that their character can be seen very well.
More than this, the openings that have been made are so located as ac-
tually to expose to inspection fully 600 feet of the vertical depth of the tin
veins of this region, some of them having been made near the level of
Irish creek and others near the top of the spurs more than GOO feet above
that level; horizontally these openings are many of them bub a short
distance apart, consequently it is fair to say that we have here, in this
deeply and steeply eroded or naturally trenched region, the equivalent
of shafts of varying depths, up to over 600 feet in a level country. For
example, numbers 1 and 2 are but 1,600 feet apart horizontally, and yet
they are over 300 feet apart vertically. It is considered that from these
two and their surroundings there are nearly the same data for conclu-
sion as would be obtained if the shaft at No. 2 were sunk to a depth of
320 feet. The same may be said of the other localities where the tin
ore has been exposed. This knowledge has led me to the favorable con-
clusion above expressed in reference to the quantity and the quality of
these ores.
"The geological and mineralogical conditions of the Irish Creek tin-
bearing region are similar to, if not even identical with, those of the
Cornwall (England) and other noted tin-producing districts. There are
the same crystalline and metamorphic rocks, broken, fissured, and
faulted by dikes of trap, basalt, and other igneous rocks, thus furnish-
ing similar conditions for the formation of true, profitable, metalliferous,
fissure veins, such as are caused by profound movements of the earth's
—
crust -just such veins as those in which stanniferous ores of the Irish
Creek district are found.
" The exposure of the Irish Creek tin veins, both natural and artificial,
unmistakably leads to the conclusion that these veins compare in gen.
era! character, extent, thickness, and richness in metallic tin, most
favorably with those of the famous Cornwall district of England, while
the mining conditions are better. I may add that no region can offer
superior advantages for extensive mining and metallurgical operations;
the climate is all the year round salubrious and favorable for work; the
Blue Eidge proper of Virginia, unlike laost mouutaiu chains, is a very

garden of fertility and varied productiveness, and the same may be said
of Piedmont, Virginia, that flanks it on the east, and of the famous lime-
stone valley that flanks it on the west. The forests of this region can
be depended on for charcoal, and it is not far by direct railway to the
best metal working and coking coals in the United States."
In conclusion, this report is emphasized by the opinion that this Irish
Creek tin-bearing district, as above described, will prove abundantly pro-
ductive in tin.
Foreign sources of tin.—The association of Cornwall, England, with
the production of tin, and the enormous manufacture of tin plate in
England, have led to popular reference to England as the principal
source of that metal by the large majority of people outside of the trader