106 A. J. E. Atkin — Gold on Lightning Creek, B.C. 



much higher than at present, and may possibly be as old as Miocene. 

 It is the only channel so far discovered in the country of this period, 

 and I have no hesitation in attributing the gold deposits of Lightning 

 Creek to the erosion of this old channel, which also produced the 

 rich benches along Slough Creek (see locality plan) when the 

 watershed drained into Willow River instead of into Cottonwood 

 Eiver as it does at present. The enormous extent of the erosion can 

 be judged when the deepest gutter below the present creek at 

 Stanley is 600 feet lower than the benches above Devil's Lake, 

 which are the only discovered remains of this old channel within 

 the present drainage area of Lightning Creek. 



While very little gold remains in Amador Creek, the sudden 

 failure of the auriferous lead on Perkins Gulch appears to indicate 

 the probable level at which this channel ran ; there is nothing more 



/c/ea/ SecA/o/?. 



suggestive than the rock prominence shown in the photograph.^ 

 This cliff probably marks a point around which the oldest channel 

 once ran, confined on the outside by the rock prominence. The 

 terraces further along the hill may be Post-Glacial debris resting on 

 the benches of this stream, or the result of the receding waters of 

 Pleistocene times terracing the loose deposits. 



Summing up these notes, I look on the richness of the Pliocene 

 channel of Lightning Creek as due to the concentration of the 

 gold contained in the beds of the stream when it ran at the level of 

 Fry's Bench; and on Butcher Bench and Dunbar Flat level at a still 

 earlier date. This last in turn owes its richness to the earliest 

 channel, the course of which I have tried to indicate. 



^ The Editor regrets that the photograph referred to by the author was too small 

 and not sufficiently clear for reproduction by process. 



