QUERY VI.
A NOTICE of the mines and other ſubterraneous
riches; its trees, plants, fruits, &c.
I knew a ſingle inſtance of gold found in this ſtate. It was interſperſed in ſmall ſpecks through
clines to the opinion, that this channel, has been effected by the wearing of the water which runs through it, rather than that the mountain ſhould have been broken open by any convulſion of nature. But if it had been worn by the running of water, would not the rocks which form the ſides, have been worn plane? or if, meeting in ſome parts with veins of harder ſtone, the water had left prominences on the one ſide, would not the ſame cauſe have ſometimes, or perhaps generally, occaſioned prominences on the other ſide alſo? Yet Don Ulloa tells us, that on the other ſide there are always correſponding cavities, and that theſe tally with the prominences ſo perfectly, that, were the two ſides to come together, they would fit in all their indentures, without having any void. I think that this does not reſemble the effect of running water, but looks rather as if the two ſides had parted aſunder. The ſides of the break, over which is the natural bridge of Virginia, conſiſting of a veiny rock which yields to time, the correſpondence between the ſalient and re-entering inequalities, if it exiſted at all, has now diſappeared. This break has the advantage of the one deſcribed by Don Ulloa in its fineſt circumſtance; no portion in that inſtance having held together, during the ſeparation of the other parts, ſo as to form a bridge over the abyſs.
