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are found in great abundance in many places; copper, lead,* and other valuable minerals exist. That must one day become the great manufacturing region of the South. I doubt if capital could be used more advantageously in any part of the Union than in that section.

For a number of years past, the value of the live stock (as ascertained from books of the Turnpike Company) that is driven through Buncombe county, is from two to three millions of dollars. Most of this stock comes from Kentucky and Ohio, and when it has reached Ashville, it has travelled half its jour ney to the more distant parts of the Southern market, viz. Charleston and Savannah. The citizens of my district, therefore, can get their live stock into the planting States south of us at one-half the expense which those of Kentucky and Ohio are obliged to incur. Not only sheep, but hogs, horses, mules, and horned cattle can be produced in many portions of my district as cheaply as in those two States.-THOMAS L. Clingman, of North Carolina, to J. B. Skinner, of Baltimore.

THERE is not a single county west of the Blue Ridge, that does not contain in abundance rich iron ores. In some instances, these deposits are adjacent to excellent water-power and limestone, and are surrounded by heavily timbered cheap lands. The sparry carbonate of iron, or steel ore, of which a specimen, some years since, fell under the observation of Professor Mitchell, though he was not able to ascertain the locality from which it came, is abundant at a place rather inaccessible in the present condition of the country. It is not probable that in our day the beautiful statuary marble of Cherokee, both white and fleshcoloured, will be turned to much account, for want of the means of getting it into those markets where it is needed. Besides the minerals referred to in Professor Shepard's letter, some of the ores of copper exist in the western part of this State. I have the carbonate, (green malachite,) the black oxide, and some of the sulphurets. Whether, however, these, as well as the ores of lead and zinc, (both the carbonate and sulphuret exist here,) are in sufficient abundance to be valuable, cannot be ascertained without further examination than has yet been made.

Since writing this letter, I have discovered there the diamond, platina, blue corundum in large masses, of brilliant colours, and the most splendent lustre, sapphire, ruby, emerald, euclase, amethyst; also in various localities, zircon, pyropian garnet, chrome ore; and manganese, and barytes in large veins; likewise plumbago of the finest quality.

In the counties west of the Blue Ridge, there has been as yet no exploration to any depth beneath the surface of the ground, with perhaps the single exception of the old excavations in the county of Cherokee. According to the most commonly received Indian tradition, they were excavated more than a century ago, by a company of Spaniards from Florida. They are said to have worked there for two or three summers, to have obtained a white metal, and prospered greatly in their mining operations, until the Cherokees, finding that, if it became generally known that there were valuable mines in their country, the cupidity of the white men would expel them from it, determined in solemn council to destroy the whole party, and that, in obedience to that decree, no one of the adventurous strangers was allowed to return to the country whence they came.—Ibid.

NEW HAVEN, CONN., Sept. 15, 1846.

Hon. MR. CLINGMAN: -Dear Sir: To your inquiry of what I think of the mineral resources of Western North-Carolina, it gives me pleasure to say that no part of the United States has impressed me more favourably than the region referred to. It is proper, however, to state, that my acquaintance with it is not the result of personal observation, but has been formed from a correspondence of several years standing with yourself and Dr. Hardy, and from the inspection of numerous illustrative specimens supplied to me at different times by my colleague, Dr. S. A. Dickson, of Charleston, South-Carolina, and by the students of a medical college of South-Carolina, who have long been in the habit of bringing with them to the college samples of the minerals of their respective neighbourhoods. I may add to these sources of information, the mention of not unfrequent applications made to me by persons from North-Carolina, who have had their attention called to mines and minerals, with a view to their profitable exploration. Nor shall I ever forget the pleasure I experienced a year or two since, on being waited upon in my laboratory by a farmer from Lincolnton, who had under his arm a small truuk of ore in lumps, which he observed that he had selected on account of their size, from the gold washings of his farm, during the space of a single year. The trunk contained not far from twelve hundred dollars in value, and one of the specimens weighed two hundred and seventy-five dollars.

I have recognised, in the geological formation of the southwestern counties of North-Carolina, the same character which distinguishes the gold and diamond region of the Minas Geraes

of Brazil, and the gold and platina district (where diamonds also exist) of the Urals, in Siberia. It is this circumstance, beyond even the actual discoveries made with us, that satisfies my mind of the richness of the country in the precious metals and the diamond. The beautiful crystal of this which you gem sent me last spring, from a gold washing in Rutherford, however, establishes the perfect identity of our region with the far-famed auriferous and diamond countries of the South and the East.

Neither can there remain any doubt concerning the existence of valuable deposites of manganese, lead, crome, and iron in your immediate vicinity, to which I think we are authorized to add zinc, barytes, and marble. I have also seen indications of several of the precious stones, besides the diamond; making it, on the whole, a country of the highest mineralogical promise.

Enough has already been developed, as it appears to me, in the minerals of the region under consideration, to arouse the attention of prudent legislators to this fertile source of prosperity in a State. If a competent surveyor of the work were obtained, under whose direction a zealous and well-instructed corps of young men, (now easily to be obtained from those States in which such enterprises are just drawing to a close,) could take the field, I have no doubt that numerous important discoveries would immediately be made, and that the entire outlay required for carrying forward the work would in a very short time be many times over returned to the people, from mineral wealth which now lies unobserved in their very midst.

I have a wish to see the public survey of North-Carolina undertaken, not only on account of its economical bearings, but from the conviction with which I am impressed, that it will equally promote the progress of science, and elevate the character of our country at large. Professor CHARLES UPHAM SHEPARD, of New-Haven, to Thomas L. Clingman.

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THE WARM SPRINGS.

I COME now to speak of the Warm Springs, which are thirtysix miles from Ashville, and within six of the Tennessee line. Of the Springs themselves there are some half dozen, but the largest is covered with a house, and divided into two equal apartments, either one of which is sufficiently large to allow of a swim. The temperature of the water is 105 degrees, and it is a singular fact that rainy weather has a tendency to increase the heat, but it never varies more than a couple of degrees. the springs are directly on the southern margin of the French

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Broad; the water is clear as crystal, and so heavy that even a child may be thrown into it with little danger of being drowned. As a beverage, the water is quite palatable, and it is said that some people can drink a number of quarts per day, and yet experience none but beneficial effects. The diseases which it is thought to cure are palsy, rheumatism, and cutaneous affections; but they are of no avail in curing pulmonic or dropsical affections. The Warm Springs are annually visited by a large number of fashionable and sickly people from all the Southern States, and the proprietor has comfortable accommodations for two hundred and fifty people.-LANMAN's Letters from the Alleghany Mountains.

RESOURCES OF NORTH-CAROLINA.

REV. M. A. CURTIS, one of the best botanists in the United States, says that North-Carolina contains 3725 varieties of known plants, or varieties of vegetable productions-and is supposed to contain in all 5310; and that all the States north of Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, contain only 2625 varieties. He also says, in a Botany prepared for the author of this work, (to be used in his Gazetteer,) that "in all the elements which render forest-scenery attractive, we may safely say that no portion of the Eastern United States presents them in happier combination, in larger extent, or in greater perfection, than the mountains of North-Carolina."

The mineral resources of the State are unequalled. She has as much coal as Pennsylvania, as much iron as Virginia, and ranks next to California for gold. Even in her present thinly peopled and almost crippled condition, she ranks first as a turpentine State, sixth as a corn-grower, fourth as a rice-producer, sixth as a cotton-grower, fifth for tobacco, seventh for lumber exports, and makes more wheat than any one of eighteen of her sisters. Think of it: corn, wheat, tobacco, rice, cotton, lumber, and naval stores are all staples, and sugar can be made one. The same cannot be said of another State. She has the finest sheep-walks in the world, the most abundant water-power, the most minerals, and the most varied vegetable productions, useful and ornamental. She has at Beaufort the best harbour in the South; and she needs only navigable rivers to make her the favourite of nature. Let the iron ways take the place of these, and who can calculate her progress?

One other fact deserves to be stated. Much has been said, in +he first part of the Reader, concerning the climate, &c. of North

Carolina; and in reference to this matter, there is a fact worth more than all the assertions in the world.

The life insurance companies of England have given more attention to the statistics of health, &c., in different parts of the world, than all the rest of mankind: they have had the ablest men in their employment for many years, and have formed very elaborate tables, from a vast collection of facts and observations. According to these calculations, the average duration of human life is longer in North-Carolina and New-Hampshire than it is in any other part of the globe; and the insurances in these States are considered safer to the companies than those in any other place.

Hurrah for North-Carolina, forever!-C. H. WILEY.

MANUFACTURING AND OTHER INDUSTRIAL INTERESTS OF NORTH-CAROLINA.

BY HENRY B. ELLIOTT, OF NORTH-CAROLINA.

NORTH-CAROLINA may be said to be the pioneer of the Southern States in the manufacture of cotton. She was closely followed by Georgia, who, by her enterprise, population, and wealth, has earned for herself the proud distinction of being called the Empire State, South. The first feeble beginnings in North-Carolina were in Lincoln and Edgecombe counties, some thirty-five years ago. But such was the want of skill, the imperfection of machinery, and the want of commercial facilities, that they made little impression on the public mind; indeed, their very existence was unknown to nine-tenths of our population. The factory in Lincoln, after struggling through many years of difficulty, has, it is understood, been renovated, and takes rank among similar establishments of modern times. The one in Edgecombe was less fortunate. It was removed to Fayetteville, when it soon ceased to run. Such was the state of our manufactures, "if state it might be called," in 1829. In that year, Colonel Benjamin Elliott, moved by a spirit of enterprise, and a desire for Southern progress and improvement, purchased the site at Cedar Falls, with a view to organize a company for the manufacture of cotton goods. He failed in his laudable purpose. The business was new in the South-the North had the advantage in skill-Southern people would not buy a Southern manufacture-the thing would be a failure, and the capital lost! These considerations deterred men from engaging in it. His agitation of the subject, however, was as "seed sown upon the waters, to be gathered," not many days hence, but immediately. Henry Humphreys, Esq., of Greens

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