478 



SUPPLEMENTARY INVESTIGATIONS IN THE GRAVEL REGION. 





one in which even small slips are of rare occurrence. No easy solution offers itself for the problem, 

 unless it can be admitted that Spanish Peak itself is an eruptive mass, which has been upheaved 

 since the time when the channel of Gopher Hill and Badger Hill was making its accumulations 

 of gravel. Further explorations will have to be made before the question can be considered 

 settled. 



C. Between Quincy and Sierraville. 



My examination of the country lying to the east of Quincy was far from satisfactory. The set- 

 ting in of the winter's snow at an unusually early day in October prevented my doing anything 

 more than spend a few hours at Jamison City, and a part of a day at Mr. Andrew Jackson's dig- 

 gings on the ridge to the south of Mohawk Valley, near Wash P. 0. The reported gravel deposits 

 at Argentine, Alturas, and other places lying to the north of the stage-road I had to pass by 



entirely. 



Along the stage-road from Quincy to the Twenty-mile House boulders and large masses of volcanic 



rock, apparently hard and solid, are of frequent occurrence. Farther east, between the Twenty-mile 



House and Knott's Ranch, or Mohawk Valley P. 0., the whole surface of the country is covered with 



an immense, uninterrupted deposit of comparatively loose material, resembling volcanic ash. The 



flanks of the ridges, on either hand, frequently show nothing but steep or precipitous gray and 



barren slopes, laid bare by extensive land-slides, some of them evidently of quite recent origin. 



There are no exposures of bed-rock. The waters of the Middle Feather run upon a mass of river 



gravel or lava, the depth of which is not known. The altitude of Knott's Ranch I made to be 



4,325 feet, which is probably not far from correct, though, on account of the approaching storm, 



my barometric determinations of altitude in this vicinity are less to be trusted than usual. The 



highest point on the road from Knott's Ranch to Jamison City, near Mr. S. Babb's house, has an 



approximate elevation of 4,960 feet. From this point the road descends into the canon of Jamison 



Creek, along the banks of which Jamison City is built. The altitude of the town at the Miners' 



Home is about 4,800 feet. 



The whole of the country which came within my field of observation between Jamison City and 

 Johntown, the latter place being a couple of miles or more farther up the creek, and at an altitude 

 350 feet higher than the former, is covered with an accumulation of so-called " cement " and 

 boulders. Neither in the bed of the creek nor upon the sloping sides of the canon was there any 

 rock in place to be seen. I was told that I could find such rock in the creek a little way above 

 Johntown, which is probably true ; but the most contradictory statements were made in reference 

 to outcrops of bed-rock below Jamison City. Some persons said that there was no rock exposed 

 to view for two miles down the creek, while others asserted that I could see it within a quarter of 

 a mile of the town. Eureka Peak is said be a mass of slate-rock, even to its summit. As to the 

 extent of territory covered by the loose material above referred to, I can give no definite informa- 

 tion. It is a common belief among the miners of the vicinity that the cement and boulders fill 

 the deep and broad channel of an old stream, which once flowed in or from a northwesterly direc- 

 tion along what is now the slope of the ridge, and that they cover a stratum of rich auriferous 

 gravel. Some even go so far as to say that the genuine " blue lead " passes directly beneath Jami- 

 son City. Supported by their belief, an association of about twenty miners, organized as the 

 Enterprise Company, has begun the sinking of a shaft in the bed of the creek a few rods below 

 the bridge at Jamison City. If current report be true, between twenty and twenty-five thousand 

 dollars have already been expended in this undertaking. It was impossible to get any very satis- 

 factory information about operations at this shaft. The altitude of the mouth of the shaft is not 

 far from 4,750 feet. After reaching a depth of about 160 feet, the projectors found it necessary to 

 enlarge the cross-section of the shaft in order to make room for heavier pumps. 



The enlargement 



was not completed at the time I was there, and I have no means of knowing whether bed-rock or 

 pay-gravel has ever been reached. The proprietors keep their own secrets. 



Among the pebbles and boulders which cover the surface between Jamison City and Johntown, 







