516 A. J. E. Atkin — Genesis of Gold Depoaits, Barkerville, B.C. 



These specimens, which might be largely augmented if required, 

 are sufficient to account for the origin of most of the gold. 



The occurrences, graduating from coarse to fine, typical of water- 

 sorted deposits, the variation in the quality of the gold in different 

 parts of the same channel, the assay value vai'ying between about 

 850 and 910 as it does in the reefs, must, taken togt-ther, place the 

 detrital origin of the greater part of the gold beyond dispute. 



It may still be suggested that some of the gold is a precipitate in 

 the drifts. Even this seems unlikely in view of the shortness of 

 the creeks and the small size of the nuggets found. 



The largest nugget ever discovered in Cariboo County did not 

 exceed 40 ounces in weight, and that was taken from Butcher 

 Bench on Lightning Creek, the remains of a channel in which the 

 water ceased to flow while the creek cut down through ninety feet 

 of rock to the bed of the deepest channel.' Were the gold here of 

 accretionary origin, surely the deepest channel would have contained 

 the largest nuggets, instead of smaller pieces so scratched and worn 

 as to distinctly show their origin to be detritus from a higher level, 

 worn and broken up in the bed of a mountain torrent. 



If it be argued that the deposits are too recent for any but small 

 accretions to be found, exhibit -j is an instance of a small particle 

 embedded in quartz which very little attrition might have set free 

 to mislead investigators. 



The small piece on the back of D would have been another piece 

 whose true origin would with difficulty have been determined. 

 Then, again, I am informed ^ nuggets are found in the clay, though 

 this is not quite certain. These cannot be the restilt of percolating 

 water, as this clay is very compact and quite impervious to solutions. 

 The specimens shown to me as derived from this source had a large 

 proportion of quartz in them, and are more likely to occur in one of 

 the streaks deposited during recessions of the ice-cap, probably as 

 fragments from such boulders as D came from, which it required 

 the violence of the torrential waters frou) the melting ice-cap to 

 disintegrate to the size of pieces whose gold contents saved them 

 from further fracture, while the same torrents swept the smaller 

 pieces down to the receptacle of the waters of that period, as 

 Dr. Dawson suggests a lake occupying the basin from Soda Creek 

 to the Nacahaco, while its western boundary reached to what is now 

 the Kluskus-Ulgacho^ watershed. 



Xist of specimens submitted from Barhcrville, B.C., and its vicinity. 



Various nuggets marked y^^t'^^T'^- 

 Piece of quartz showing free gold, marked D. 

 Bottle of quartz gold from Lowhee Creek, marked E. 

 Tube of gold from Middle Williams Creek, marked B. 

 Tube of gold from Lower Williams Creek, marked C. 

 [The above specimens have been received by the Editor Geol. Mag.] 



1 "Notes on the Gold Occurrences on Lightning Creek": Geol. Mag., March, 1905. 

 ^ R. S. Robinson, Resident Engineer, Cariboo Goldfields, Ltd., Alluvial Mining. 

 ^ Two Indian villages whose positions can easily be seen on maps. 



