47

line azoic. Some of the veins of tin, copper and lead, and mines of topaz, emerald and sapphire, are among the productions, of this epoch of metamorphism." A knowledge of this fact would have saved thousands of dollars of useless expenditure in Llano and other counties, in digging and blasting into granites and other igneous rocks. Much cf such work, has been done the past season. A gentleman, who said he was part proprietor of a silver mine near Babyhead Mountain, in Llano county, told me last summer that he had traced the silver vein to the base of the mountain, and up and over it, the veins passing; through to the other side. Last October I was at this mountain; passed over and around it; found it granite, with a few veins of quartz and feldspar; but could see no silver, nor any signs of it. Much search has been made, and many excavations made in the granites of Burnet and Llano counties. Even now many believe the Enchanted Rock mountains of Llano to abound in gold and other precious metals; but as these mountains are all granites and their associated igneous rocks, they afford little promise of gold or any other precious metal. No large amounts of gold have been found during the last thirty years in the rocks or sands of Texas. Some, in washing the sands of Llano county for gold, have made on an average about fifty cents a day.

has been noticed to some extent under the heads of lead and gold A few years ago, several statements were published of a rich silver mine in Llano county, near the base of Babyhead Mountain, in the northern Dart of the county. The ore was reported to yield on an average about 240 to the ton. It may have been more; I write from memory, feeling sure that the amount is not overstated. Such yields of silver pay well, and it was published that this Llano mine was being worked and its ore shipped to New York to be smelted. It was also stated that preparations were being made to smelt the ore at home. This silver mine, was expected to cause the town of Llano (eight to ten miles distant) to improve rapidly.

I visited this locality last October. No work was being done there, and very little had ever been done. This surely would not have been, had the mine been as rich as has been represented. I could not there find a good specimen of either silver or lead.