f negroes for the Southern market. For some reason this trade
has greatly declined within the past five years, the stock becoming
unsalable, and its production being interrupted. I would advise
no person to contemplate moving to Virginia with a view to raising
negroes for sale. The business was formerly conducted by the "First
Families," and if it should be revived, they will doubtless claim an
exclusive privilege.

North Carolina abounds in minerals, especially in gold, copper, iron,
and coal. The fields of the latter are very extensive. The gold
mines of North Carolina have been profitably worked for many years. A
correspondent of _The World_, in a recent letter from Charlotte, North
Carolina, says:

In these times of mining excitement it should he more widely known
that North Carolina is a competitor with California, Idaho, and
Nebraska. Gold is found in paying quantities in the State, and in the
northern parts of South Carolina and Georgia. For a hundred miles
west and southwest of Charlotte, all the streams contain more or less
gold-dust. Nuggets of a few ounces have been frequently found, and
there is one well-authenticated case of a solid nugget weighing
twenty-eight pounds, which was purchased from its ignorant owner for
three dollars, and afterward sold at the Mint. Report says a still
larger lump was found and cut up by the guard at one of the mines.
Both at Greensboro, Salisbury, and here, the most reliable residents
concur in pointing to certain farms where the owners procure large
sums of gold. One German is said to have taken more than a million
of dollars from his farm, and refuses to sell his land for any price.
Negroes are and have been accustomed to go out to the creeks and wash
on Saturdays, frequently bringing in two or three dollars' worth, and
not unfrequently negroes come to town with little nuggets of the pure
ore to trade.

The iron and copper mines were developed only to a limited extent
before the war. The necessities of the case led the Southern
authorities, however, after the outbreak, to turn their attention to
them, and considerable quantities of the ore were secured. This was
more especially true of iron.

North Carolina is adapted to all the agricultural products of both
North and South, with the exception of cane sugar. The marshes on the
coast make excellent rice plantations, and, when drained, are very
fertile in cotton. Much of the low, sandy section, extending sixty
miles