EXPLORATION IN ALASKA IN KJO/ — GILMORE I 5 



The best-preserved specimens coming under the observation of 

 the writer were those seen at Fox Gulch, on Bonanza Creek, in 

 Yukon Territory, Canada, some twelve miles distant from the city 

 of Dawson. On account of the excellent state of preservation of 

 many of the- specimens found here and the fact that they occur in 

 what may be considered as an approach to a primary deposition, a 

 somewhat detailed- description of this locality will be given. 



Bonanza Creek Localities 



Bonanza Creek empties into the Klondike River about a mile and 

 a quarter above Dawson. The valley is trough-like in character and 

 follows a sinuous line bending from right to left. The present valley, 

 according to McConnell, 1 has been cut down through the floor of an 

 older valley. At irregular intervals the sides of the valley have been 

 dissected by gulches. Magnet and Fox Gulches (see pi. ix (x) ), 

 on the left-hand side, are the most important from the standpoint of 

 vertebrate fossils. Gold has been found in both, and at the time of 

 our visit hydraulic operations were being carried on here by the 

 Yukon Consolidated Gold Fields Company. In the prosecution of 

 this work the content of the entire gulch to bed-rock was being 

 sluiced down (see pi. vi, fig. 2), the talus spreading out fan-like into 

 the creek bed below. 



In the talus from Magnet Gulch representative parts of the mam- 

 moth, horse, bison, and moose were picked up. 



At Fox Gulch we were shown many fine skulls and other skeletal 

 parts of Blephas, Bison, Bquus, and Alee. On the bank near the 

 working face was a complete skull of the mammoth beside two bison 

 skulls, recently uncovered (see pi. iv, fig. 2), and protruding from 

 the face of the undisturbed muck was a large tusk (see pi. iv, fig. 1) 

 and the skull of another bison. These had been uncovered the morn- 

 ing of our visit. 



Fox Gulch is a short, deep gulch that has been cut down through 

 the quartz drift and "White Channel" deposits and deep into the 

 present bed-rock. The bed-rock is covered with a thin layer of 

 rather coarse gravel on top of which is a thick layer of muck (see 

 fig. 1). The gold occurs in the gravel underlying this muck, and in 

 order to reach it the mass of superincumbent material is washed 

 down by the powerful streams of water from the nozzles of the 

 "jacks."' 



1 McConnell, R. G. : Preliminary Report on the Klondike Gold Fields. Yukon 

 District, Canada. Geol. Surv. Canada, No. 687, 1900, p. 21. 



