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164 



THE AURIFEROUS GRAVELS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 



2. You Bel and Red Dog. 



The road from Little York after crossing Steep Hollow follows up the line of Wilcox Ravine 

 towards You Bet. The country rock is the ordinary slate of the region. On the east of the ravine 

 is Chicken Point, with high gravel extending nearly to the edge of Steep Hollow Canon. The road 

 rises rapidly, and, at a point a little less than half a mile from the town of You Bet, strikes the 

 main mass of gravel, which covers without any material exception an area of twelve or fifteen 

 hundred acres. A line drawn in a southwesterly (magnetic) direction from the end of Chicken 

 Point, for a distance of a mile and three quarters, would mark nearly the southeastern boundary 

 of this gravel. Starting from the same point and running for the same distance in a nearly north- 

 west (magnetic) direction along the base of the Sugar Loaf and Chalk Bluffs gives us, approxi- 

 mated, the northeast line of the gravel as far as Boston Hill, near the canon of the Little Green- 

 horn. Beyond this point lies the gravel of Buckeye Hill, Hunt's Hill, and other places, which 

 will be noticed farther on. The northwestern boundary of the gravel in question is an irregular 

 line running to the northwest of You Bet, and including Red Dog and the mines of Independence 

 and Bunker hills. It must not be supposed that there are absolutely no points within these limits 

 which are not covered with gravel ; but they are not many in number. 



To the northeast, the Sugar Loaf and Chalk Bluffs form as it were a high, steep wall, at the foot 

 of which the highest gravel and bed-rock are found. How far the gravel extends underneath the 

 volcanic material of which the bluffs arc composed, if at all, is a question for future consideration. 

 From the foot of the bluff towards the west the general slope of the country is more moderate, 

 though decided. The surface, however, is by no means level and smooth. The town of You Bet, 

 for example, near the head of Wilcox Ravine, is built upon a sharp ridge of gravel, along the comb 

 of which there is room for only one street. To the south, the slope is rapid towards Steep Hollow ; 

 and to the north there is also a considerable depression — Missouri Canon — between You Bet and 

 Red Dog, while to the west, towards Pine Hill, the slope is quite gradual. The town of Red Dog 

 is also built upon the gravel between Missouri Canon and Arkansas Canon. 



At Pine Hill, the western end of the district, the gravel is spread over a nearly level plateau, of 

 several acres in extent, fifty feet or more above the gravel at Waloupa, which lies on the opposite 

 side of a ravine. The principal points of interest on Pine Hill are at Hubbard's Tunnel and near 

 Cahel's house. The Waloupa* Diggings are at the southeastern extremity of a spur of slate be- 

 tween two ravines which unite below to form Birdsoye Canon. Across the ravine from Waloupa, 

 and to the south of You Bet, the principal mines — or those to which reference will have to be 

 made in the following pages — are those of Niece & West, Williams, Heydliff, Brown and Mallory, 

 and Hyatt or Haight. To the east of the mines just mentioned, and in part separated from them 

 by Sardine Flat, lies the high gravel of Chicken Point. At the head of the ravine the gravel is 

 continuous from You Bet to Chicken Point. From Chicken Point northwesterly the gravel is con- 

 tinuous along the base of the bluff at the head of the ravines which unite to make Missouri Canon. 

 These mines have been worked mostly by Williams, Timmens, and Brockmann. Beyond these, 

 and separated by only a small interval, come Huzzey's claims, and the openings on Darling's and 

 Boston hills. At Red Dog there is gravel on both sides of Arkansas Canon ; the mine first to 

 the north of the canon being called Independence Hill. The continuation of Independence Hill 

 at the point where Williams has another claim is known as Bunker Hill. 



In attempting to trace the geological relations of this mass of gravel, difficulties upon difficulties 

 arise so rapidly that it seems almost impossible ever to hit upon any explanation of the facts 

 which will satisfy all conditions. In what follows, therefore, I shall try, not so much to establish 



* The correct orthography of the name Waloupa in involved in considerable doubt. Most persons have 

 supposed the name to be of Indian origin ; hut there are some who say that the claim was first opened 

 by a party of Spaniards who gave to it the name of Guadaloupe, which in time became corrupted into 

 Waloupa, or Wauloopa, or any one of a number of other ways of writing it. 



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