NJDEP - NJGS - First Annual Report of the Geological Survey of the ...

16in the vicinity who possessed a mineral rod of marvellous virtue,and who professed to be skilled in its use ; told him hisstory, and, after receiving from the mineralizer assurances ofthe occurrence of a copper vein in that field which his mineralrod had discovered several years previous, offered to disclose itto him, together with its precise width, richness, &e., for thesum of twenty.five dollars. The stipulated amount having been"paid, they proceeded to the'field ; the mineral rod pointed outthe vein, the dimensions of which were duly defined with.stakes. So'well satisfied was he with the correctness of therevelations of the magic rod, that on the following day hc offeredto purchase the property at ten times its value. Itsowner, however, catching the enthusiasm and dreaming of be,coming suddenly rich, would not dispose of his property underany circumstances; but offered to lease it on yery favorableterms. A lease was accordingly drawn, and our hero corn,menesd operations by sinking a shaft over the supposed vein ;and when he applied to me had already sunk the shah twicethe depth required by the revelation; and having expendedseveral hundred dollars, was about returning to the West eitherto induce his father, an old_feeble man, to come and point outthe spot, or to recruit himself with funds to prosecute thework.During the last summer,' I met with one of these'philosophersin whose hands the divining rod possseses such wonderfulpowers, and who has acquiredgreat reputatiqn in the north.era part of the State, not' only from the pretended discoveriesthat he has made, but for his untiring efforts to ,unfold hlddcntr&sures. After much difficulty, my curiosity was gratifiedby seeing the veritable rod with which, according to his ownstatement, he had located the principal gold mines of Virginiaand :North Carolina, had discovered sunken steamboats on thegreat lakes, had told how much silver there was in the Sussex.Bank, had traced the franklinite and zinc ores of Stlrling Hillfor miles from their present location, had dlscovered the principal'ironveins of New Jersey, and for which he had been offaredtwo hundred thousand dollars, by a company in CallforniaNEW JERSEY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY