

'J:-' 



THE GEAVEL: ON CHRISTMAS HILL. 



157 



steep, there being a descent of fully 700 feet within a distance of little over a quarter of a mile. 

 Toward Little York the fall is not quite so rapid. On the northern end of the hill, near Mellor's 

 house, there is a divide a trifle lower than the summit of the hill; and in following the road be- 

 yond that the gravel grows thinner, and disappears before the sharp ascent of the Camel's Hump 

 commences. To the northeast of this elevation there is a small patch of washed gravel ; but it 

 seems not to belong to the main deposit at all, but to be, rather, the relic of some small feeder of 

 Bear Eiver or Steep Hollow. 



The western face of the bank on Christmas Hill, for nearly the whole distance, will measure 

 from thirty to sixty feet in height. The section thus offered shows mostly a line red gravel, inter- 

 mixed to some extent with strata of pipe-clay and sand, which latter is so hardened as to be almost 

 a proper sandstone. There is here hardly a boulder as large as a man's head, although on the west- 

 ern side such small ones are rather frequent. The eastern bank, which is much cut up by the 

 sluices and by ravines which empty into Bear Eiver, will average about twenty feet in height, and 

 its summit is from twenty to thirty feet lower than that of the western bank. All along the 

 eastern side of the hill, at distances ranging from fifty to 200 feet from the edge of the bank, the 

 line between the gravel and the slate is easily traced ; but it is not easy to decide whether this is 

 to be regarded as the rim of a channel. It is more probable that this is not the case ; this high 

 gravel appearing rather to indicate that there was once an extensive lake at this place, or else that 

 the river choked up to such an extent that the lateral ravines were filled with detritus for a long 

 distance back from the main channel. Possibly, however, there was here once a tributary of the 

 main stream. In the case of Christmas Hill, this latter supposition seems hardly tenable ; because, 

 to have deposited so much gravel, there must have been a great deal of water, and a longer stream 

 than we have any evidence of higher up. The second of the above theories seems, on the whole, 

 the most reasonable, as was the case in regard to Plug Ugly Hill. Indeed, these two hills resemble 

 each other in many particulars. Plug Ugly has its capping of fine red gravel, with Eastman Hill 

 on its flank, just as Christmas Hill has its capping of similar material, and is separated from Mis- 

 souri Hill by an extensive stretch of slate. The parallelism is complete ; and it would be desirable 

 to have an opportunity to examine the bed-rock under these hills, to see whether it shows such 

 signs of wear as would be left by running water. 



On the southeastern side of Christmas Hill are two or three small openings, which are eight or 

 ten feet lower than the main mass of gravel, and separated from it by a rim of slate bed-rock, 

 -f no largest of these openings is about 350 feet in diameter, with a bank of gravel, about thirty feet 

 Mgn on the west, and one of six or eight feet on the east. There is also a considerable quantity of 

 clay, and of boulders measuring more than a foot in diameter. The union of notable quantities of 

 clay and of boulders of such large dimensions in the same restricted deposit points, not so much to 

 a cnau nel of running water, as to a holo in which the boulders have been stopped, and where the 

 clay has been packed around them, at a later period, when the force of the water had abated. If 

 this whole deposit of gravel were in a ravine, which had been filled up by the back water from 

 the main stream, it would be only natural to find small boulders, which have been rolled down 

 rom a hove, and not carried far from their original place of lodgement. 



Manzanita Hill is the, highest point south, of Christmas Hill, on the ridge between Bear Eiver 

 and Steep Hollow. Toward the junction of the streams the slope is gradual, until the steep de- 

 scent into the canon is reached, as is common in this region, wherever there is a ridge between 

 wo canons. Near and around the summit of Manzanita Hill are the heads of a number of ravines, 

 some emptying into Steep Hollow and some into Bear Eiver. The most important one on the 

 ^ear Eiver side is known as Nigger Eavine, and that on the Steep Hollow side as Cariboo Eavine. 

 _ e Ween the heads of these two ravines is a low divide, or saddle, which connects the top of 

 ^anzanita Hill with the subordinate ridge between Nigger Eavine and Steep Hollow. On the 



roll T* 1)0hlt °' tlliS l;ltt0r Mfl * 110t ^ fr ° m th ° Saddl ° JUSt me ® tioEed > therc is a sn,:l11 P afcch of 

 ed quartz gravel, covering an area of about a quarter of an acre, and not appearing to be of any 



considerable depth. It is several feet higher than the bed-rock, although not as high as the top 



