LITTLE KNOWN ANCIENT TRIBUTARIES. 283 



area above Washington. If this be the case, on the other hand, the 

 Relief channel could not very well have connected with the Omega. 

 Many complicated questions remain to be worked out in this vicinity. 



In this connection mention might be made of the curious relations 

 near mount Oro, a few miles east of Quaker hill. The same volcanic 

 area that overlies the Phelps Hill-Remington channel covers this vicinity. 

 but under it at mount Oro there appears to exist, if my information is 

 correct, a depression which, as exposed by old inclines, is much deeper 

 than the rims of the lava flow are at any place; it is at a lower elevation 

 than both Phelps hill and Remington hill, and no possible outlet can be 

 suggested. 



Whatever the relations of the Centennial channel will ultimately prove 

 to be, I think it probable that a fork of the principal channel continued 

 from Remington, by way of Democrat and Excelsior, in a northeasterly 

 direction under the volcanic cover for some distance up toward Omega. 



Grades : 



Upper Dutch Flat to Liberty hill, 11 miles, 183 feet to the mile. 



Liberty hill to Lowell hill, 31 miles, 136 feet to the mile. 



Lowell hill to Remington hill, \ mile, 90 feet to the mile. 



The Channel between Alta end Shady Ran. — Cut off for some distance by 

 Little Bear creek, the principal channel is found again emerging from 

 under the volcanic cap at Nary Red, northwest of Alta. Some parts of 

 this channel near Nary Red have been drifted. Near Alta two shafts 

 have been sunk on it, In the one to the north of the railroad, according 

 to information received of Mr E. C. Uren, of Auburn, bed-rock was 

 reached at 200 feet and good gravel found, not rich enough, however, to 

 pay for mining by shafts. At this point the main channel appears to 

 have been joined by a tributary coming in from the west at the Moody 

 gap. on the divide between Canyon creek and the American river and 

 crossing Canyon creek south of Alta. The main channel continues, I 

 have no doubt, under the lava cap up toward Blue Bluffs at Shady run, 

 where it probably forked again, one fork, the deposits of which now are 

 mostly eroded, continuing up toward the Neocene highlands near risen, 

 by way of the isolated gravel area of Lost Camp, the other fork continu- 

 ing for some distance up toward Blue canyon and Emigrant Gap under 

 the lava ridge. 



It would seem as if ihe deep channel from Alta up toward Blue canyon 

 would offer a- good field for mining enterprises.* The upper part of it 

 is accessible by tunnels from the steep side of the canyon of the American 



♦Attention u as some time ag". ami very justly, drawn to the existence of this channel by Mr James 

 F. Talbott, of Shady run, in a series of articles in the Mining and Scientific Press of June 14, L890 

 et seq., vol. 60, No. :U, et seq. 



