232 Kansas Academy of Science. 



locations are'afShishi Beach, between Point of Arches and Portage 

 Head; at Ozette Beach, near the village of the same name; at Yel- 

 low Banks five miles south of the Ozette Indian village; and at a 

 point on the beach some two miles northwest of Johnson Point and 

 six miles northwest up the coast from the mouth of the Quillayute 

 river. 



In 1894 came the first gold excitement of the region, it being 

 reported at that time that gold could be found in the beach sands 

 almost anywhere from Gray's Harbor to Cape Flattery. A rush 

 followed, and most of the beach was staked from Cape Flattery 

 south nearly to the mouth of the Columbia river. Pay sand, how- 

 ever, has been found only at the locations above mentioned. 



The gold, which is usually in small flakes, is always associated 

 with "black" and "ruby" sands. It seems to have been concen- 

 trated at the base of the bluffs along the coast at or near bed-rock 

 by a process of wave action, from the Pleistocene deposits capping 

 the bluffs. In separating this metal from the sand and gravel in 

 which it is found the sluice-box method is used wherever there is 

 sufficient water; at other places rockers are used. 



Mr. W. W. Lovelace, the owner of the Shishi placers, states that 

 his claims have produced $15,000 in gold; and it is likely that the 

 other claims along the beach taken together have produced a like 

 sum. 



Shishi Bench Placers. — Shishi beach extends from Point of 

 Arches to Portage Head. This beach had furnished the richest 

 claims on the coast up to this present year, when it was eclipsed 

 by the placers near Johnson Point. In this district the beach 

 claims are now mostly worked out; but recently paying placer 

 ground has been found on the bench inland from the beach. 

 Along this beach a low bluff of gray shale and fine gray sand- 

 stone meets the incoming tide. Superimposed upon this are yellow 

 sands and gravels of Pleistocene age, while the beach at high-tide 

 line is strewn with cobbles and pebbles, mostly derived from the 

 Pleistocene deposits through the action of the encroaching sea. 

 The rest of the beach is covered mostly with sand from one to four 

 feet in thickness. It is in this sand and in the crevices of the un- 

 derlying sandstone and shale that the gold is found. Mr. Lovelace 

 states that he removes several inches of the bed-rock and sluices 

 it with the sand when washing for gold on this beach. 



Ozette Placers. — Along the beach at Ozette gold occurs in the 

 sand the same as at Shishi; but on account of a lack of water but 

 little work has ever been done. Before placer mining can be sue- 



