Another mass, weighing six hundred pennyweights was found on the surface of a ploughed field in the vicinity of the Yadkin, twenty miles or more north of Reed’s mine. Specimens of great beauty are occasionally found, but, for want of mineralogists to reserve them for cabinets, they have always been melted into bars. Mr. Reed found a mass of quartz, having a projecting point of gold, of the size of a large pin’s head. On breaking it open, a brilliant display of green and yellow colors was presented. The gold weighed twelve pennyweights. Mineralogists may perhaps recognise, in this description, a congeries of fine crystals, but on that point the proprietor was uninformed. Although fragments of greenstone, and of several argillaceous minerals, occur among the gravel of the gold stratum yet, in the opinion of the miners, it is never found attached to any other mineral than quartz. Indeed, it is seldom attached to any substance, but is commonly scattered promiscuously among the gravel. Its color is generally yellow, with a reddish tinge, though the surface is not unfrequently obscured by a partial incrustation of iron or manganese, or adhering particles of sand. The masses are flattened and vascular, having angles rounded with evident marks of attrition. _Parker’s Mine_ is situated on a small stream, four miles south of the river Yadkin. As in the instance already mentioned, excavations were numerous in the low grounds adjacent to the stream; but the earth for washing, which was of a snuff color, was transported from a ploughed field in the neighborhood, elevated about fifty or sixty feet above the stream. The earth at this place, which contained the gold, was of a deeper red than that of either the other mines. The gold found here is chiefly in flakes and grains. Occasionally, however, pieces are met with that weigh one hundred pennyweights, and upwards; and one mass has been discovered that weighed four pounds and eleven ounces. This is said to have been found at the depth of ten feet. The mines have given some peculiarities to the state of society in the neighboring country. The precious metal is a most favorite acquisition, and constitutes the common currency. Almost every man carries about with him a goose quill or two of it, and a small pair of scales in a box like a spectacle case. The value, as in patriarchal times, is ascertained by weight, which, from the dexterity acquired by practice, is a less troublesome mode of counting money than one would imagine.