QUINCY AND VICINITY. 



471 





different from that to be studied in the basins of the Yuba and the American rivers. It may per- 

 haps forever remain an unsettled question, whether or not the old streams of the southern counties 

 once had their sources at points farther to the east and north than their channels have yet been 

 traced ; but I feel sure that there is nothing in that portion of Plumas County which came under 

 my observation, north of the Middle Feather, to support the belief that the gravels of that county, 

 in their present position and condition, and those of the Yuba basin, are representatives of the 



same old rivers. 



The best description of this district which has yet been published is included in a paper, by 

 Mr. J. A. Edman of Mumford Hill, in Raymond's Report for the year 1875, pages 109-128. The 

 geographical information on the map accompanying Mr. Edman 's paper was taken from the official 

 map of Plumas County, previously alluded to.* My own observations do not cover quite the same 

 ground, nor are they as extensive as those of Mr. Edman, but they agree in almost every particular 

 with his so far as they relate to the same localities. 



The most striking topographical feature of this vicinity is the high mass of syenite or granite, 

 known as Spanish Peak, nine miles west of Quincy. The precise altitude of this peak is not 

 known ; it is probably between 6,500 and 7,000 feet high.t The western slope of the mountain 

 is comparatively regular and gradual ; the eastern face is more steep and abrupt. Seen from the 

 east, this face looks like a nearly vertical wall of rock or escarpment, several hundred feet in height. 

 Directly east of Spanish Peak lies the elevated valley of Spanish Creek, shut off from the two 

 branches of the Feather River on the north and south by well-marked high ridges, which abut on 

 the west against the granite of the peak. The course of the creek from its head in the small lakes 

 near the summit of the mountain, for a distance of about twelve miles, is nearly due east, — a course 

 just opposite to that of the principal drainage of the country. The town of Quincy stands near 

 the point where the creek emerges into American Valley through a narrow gap between the north- 

 ern and southern ridges. The altitude of the town I made to be 3,383 feet, about 3,500 feet 

 lower than the top of Spanish Peak. My observing station was in the second story of the Plumas 

 House. Just below Quincy the creek makes a sharp curve to the north and west, and joins the 

 east branch of the North. Fork of the Feather near Soda Bar. The waters of the creek make a 

 circuit of nearly thirty miles in order to reach a point less than four miles distant from where 

 they started. It is in this valley, and on its enclosing ridges, that the gravel deposits to be 

 described on the following pages are found. In my descriptions I shall make no attempt, except 

 in a few cases to show how the different deposits are, or ever have been, connected together ; 

 though I shall follow, so far as possible, a systematic geographical order in my treatment of 



them. 



The Elizabeth town Flats are between one and a half and two miles northwest of Quincy, and on 

 the northern side of Spanish Creek. Elizabeth town was once the rival of Quincy in size and im- 

 portance : now it is nearly deserted, excepting by a few persons who are engaged in mining. The 

 travel lies in the trough, along the sides, and at the head of a small stream or ravine, in which the 

 water Hows easterly and southeasterly towards Spanish Creek. High bed-rock rises on the north 

 and south. At the west there is a low saddle, near the top of which beds of gravel, clay, and 

 sand are exposed to view. The altitude of the crest of the saddle I made to be 3,750 feet; a 

 quarter of a mile westerly, on the ridge, bed-rock is seen at an altitude fully 150 feet higher. I 

 cannot say with certainty whether or not the gravel is continuous across the saddle towards New- 

 town. The principal body of gravel in the Flats is not much above the general level of Spanish 

 Creek and American Valley. The long tunnel, nearly half a mile in length, which has been driven 

 from the lowest available point to the southeast, winding in such a way as to follow the line of 

 separation between gravel and bed-rock, is still not deep enough to drain the central portions of 

 the deposit. Both gravel and water have to be raised to the surface through a shaft more than 

 fifty feet in depth. The conditions are evidently not favorable for hydraulic mining. On the 



* See ante, p. 444. 



t See ante p. 216, My measurement gave 7,058 feet as the altitude of Spanish Peak. — J. D. W. 





