

POSITION OF THE CHANNEL AT YOU BET. 



165 









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a theory or announce the solution of a difficult problem, as to state as clearly as I can the facts 

 upon which a theory will have to be based and the conditions which must be satisfied. 



Proceeding upon the assumption that the gravel had been deposited from the waters of some 

 river, the first natural inquiry was as to the original cause of the channel : and, as a key to the 

 solution of the problem, barometric measurements of the altitude of the bed-rock, wherever it could 

 he found exposed, were made. The necessary observations were taken with great care. The 

 ■ barometers were frequently compared with each other ; and in almost every instance synchronous 

 observations at the hotel in You Bet, and at the different stations in the mines, were obtained. 

 None of the stations visited were more than a mile and a half from the hotel nor more than 400 

 feet above or below it. Under these circumstances we are warranted in saying that in no case can 

 there bo a relative error of more than a few feet. The altitude adopted for the hotel at You Bet 

 was lixed by comparing the observations of several days with those of the station barometer at 

 Colfax, and, at the worst, cannot be far out of the way. There have been, furthermore, from time 

 to time, partial surveys of the claims in this district; and, in some instances, differences of altitude 

 have been determined by the spirit-level. Wherever this has been the case the results have been 

 almost identical with those obtained by us in our barometric series. 



On Pine Hill no observation was taken at the top of the gravel ; but there is a descent of fully 

 100 feet from the average level of the summit of the gravel plateau to the point where Mr. Hubbard 

 has run in his tunnel. My observation was taken near the mouth of the tunnel, and showed an 

 altitude of 2,652 feet. According to Mr. Hubbard's statement this was about five feet below the 

 point on " the rim " where gravel was first struck in the tunnel. Farther in, the bed-rock was 

 nearly on the same level, — possibly one or two feet deeper in some places ; thus 2,055 feet may 





be taken as the altitude of the Pine Hill bed-rock. The length of Hubbard's Tunnel is between 

 uve and six. hundred feet in all, and its course at the mouth is nearly ~N. 40° W. (magnetic). Be- 

 yond Pine Hill there is no chance for an outlet unless by way of Mule Canon, which empties into 

 Greenhorn. This canon having been rich ill gold, it is probable that there was once an overflow 

 irom Pine Hill, if nothing more, in this direction. The most rational supposition is that the depo- 

 sition of gravel gradually filled up the original channel, until it caused the water to spread over the 

 Pine Hill region and then overflow into the adjacent low country to the northwest. That the 

 *aain channel, however, could not have run at first in this direction is shown by the elevation of 

 the bed-rock. And this idea is strengthened by the character of the Pine Hill gravel. At the 

 bottom are found large boulders of blue and white quartz, — said to be eight or ten feet in diame- 

 ter, -— together with more or less decomposed material, while the main mass of the gravel all the 

 Wa .y to the top is a rather line washed quartz. Such a, combination points rather to the filling up 

 of a lateral ravine after the main channel has outgrown its original bed, — the large boulders not 

 showing signs of any great amount of wear. To the south and west of Hubbard's Tunnel the slate 

 bed-rock rises to such a height as to preclude the possibility of the channel's having had an outlet 

 111 tluit direction ; there is, to be sure, a small ravine leading down from the mouth of the tunnel, 

 out no signs that it can ever have been the path of the stream from which the gravel was deposited. 

 A quarter of a mile to the southeast there was a small extent of bed-rock exposed, the altitude of 

 Which I made to be 2,677 feet ; this was near Cahel's house. The amount of bed-rock uncovered 

 was so small that it was impossible to decide whether I was in the centre or only on a piece of the 

 ri m of a channel. The country slopes very rapidly towards Birdseye Canon. From where I stood, 

 ^e banks at Empire Hill and Little York were plainly visible across the canon of Steep Hollow, 

 showing that there was plenty of room for the old streams to have formed a junction anywhere 

 Within quite an extended area of country. The low divide to the southwest of Cold Spring Moun- 

 ait i and the Secrettown gap were easily distinguishable, and it was not hard to see the grounds 

 ° n Wai(; h the theory was based of there once having been a channel from Waloupa or Pine Hill by 

 a y of Cariboo to Secrettown and beyond, The probability of the correctness of any such theory, 



r ever, diminishes very rapidly in the presence of others which are so much more worthy of 

 credence. 



