a? ee 
THE GOLD: ITS SIZE AND CHARACTER. 113 
Company, which is said never to have paid much, with the exception of a certain portion on the 
northeastern or concave rim. The channel is well-defined, and the bar and the two curves are 
excellent illustration of the formation of bars and the accumulation of the gold in the channel on 
the concave side of the bends, just as has taken place so often in the more modern streams. 
At the New Jersey Mine, near Forest Hill, the “great pay ” came from immediately but entirely 
back of the highest rim-rock of the great channel. 
At Smith’s Point, between First and Second Brushy cajions, the pay-streak on the bed-rock has 
been found, at some points, to rise from the surface of the rock, and run nearly horizontally 
through the gravel, across the little basins and depressions in the rock. 
At Yankee Jim’s the best pay over the whole surface washed has been invariably found on the 
southwest slope of the bed-rock. The latter is not very uneven in the channel, yet there are, of 
course, some irregularities ; and wherever the rock pitched off a little to the west or southwest, there 
it was rich ; while wherever the slope was in the opposite direction, there it was very poor. At 
one locality near the central part of the ground worked there is a narrow depression cut some 
twelve or fifteen feet deeper than the average of the broad portion of the channel, and where the 
rock first pitched off into this depression, it was so rich that about $20,000 was taken from an 
area only twenty or twenty-five feet square. The true “pot-holes” were generally barren. In 
the upper or eastern portion of the Big Channel the richest pay was on the bed-rock ; but towards 
the lower end, that is, near the head of Yankee Jim’s Cafion, much of the bed-rock was not so 
rich, and the upper gravel paid much better. The rock here, too, was more uneven, and contained 
several large basins, which, however, are said to have been comparatively poor, the pay-gravel 
running nearly horizontally over them. The head of Yankee Jim’s Gulch is said to have been 
enormously rich, single men having repeatedly taken out thousands of dollars in a day. At 
Georgia Hill the rim-rock was richer even than the spot at the head of Yankee Jim’s Caiion. 
In front of the Paragon and Rough Gold claims, at Bath, some parties, it is said, took out, chiefly 
from a thin streak in the gravel, not far above the bed-rock, and only an inch or two thick, the 
sum of $52,000. 
The Roanoke Channel, near Bottle Hill, which was followed for about a mile with a width vary- 
ing from twelve to a hundred feet, yielded over $ 500,000. 
At Flora’s Mine, west of Volcanoville, the lower portion of the gravel near the bed-rock is said 
to be tolerably rich, and occasionally very rich spots are found in it. One hundred dollars to the 
pan have been scraped up. The upper portion of the gravel is much poorer, and is said to pay no 
more than two dollars per day to the hand in drifting. 
At the Slab Claim, on the trail three quarters of a mile below Last Chance, the pay was found 
almost exclusively on the bed-rock, the layer of gravel being very thin, and overlain by a stratum 
of chocolate cement ; this again was covered by a bed of gravel about twelve feet thick, but con- 
taining very little gold. 
§ 13. The Gold ; its Size and Character. 
At Wiessler’s Claim, Iowa Hill, the gold near and upon the bed-rock is coarse and worn into 
elongated and flattened grains; it is said to be worth $18 per ounce. That from the upper part 
of the bank is scaly and exceedingly fine, or “flour gold,” and is generally worth from fifty to 
seventy-five cents per ounce more than the coarse gold on the bed-rock. 
At the Lebanon Tunnel the channel has proved rich in coarse and rather scraggy gold. One 
lump is said to have weighed ten ounces, and another forty-two. 
At Nahor’s Claim, in Green Valley Gorge, the gold is rather coarse and smooth, and it seems 
generally to grow coarser as we travel up the ridge from Iowa Hill. 
The gold from the tunnels about the head of Indian Caiion was usually very coarse. Some of 
the claims paid well, and occasional spots were found that were very rich. 
The gold in Grizzly Caiion is said to be coarse and generally rather smooth, although some of it 
was quite “scraggy.” 
