156 THE AURIFEROUS GRAVELS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 
At Missouri Hill the surface of the bed-rock exposed is not large, neither was the amount of 
gravel considerable. All that is left is an abundance of boulders, of such form and dimensions as 
to remind one strongly of the upper end of the Dutch Flat claims. There are many sharp corners 
and edges visible, which may be owing to the fact that a good proportion of the boulders have 
been broken since they were uncovered. 
At Little York proper — that is, east of the bridge of ground left standing, along which the road 
to You Bet crosses — there is a large extent of gravel. At the deepest part is a channel, from one 
to two hundred feet in width, of hard, blue gravel, —in some places almost “ cement,” — and in 
which are numerous boulders of considerable size. The depth of this blue gravel it is not easy to 
give with precision. At the lower end of Scott’s Ravine the stratum between the blue and the 
overlying red gravel consists of a sort of clayey sandstone, which is six or eight feet in thickness, 
and appears to pitch to the west, at an angle of 8° or 10°. Above the blue channel is a depth of 
from 125 to 150 feet of a finer red gravel, and this is spread out over a broader area, the bed-rock 
rising pretty rapidly on the south side, to a point about twenty-five feet above the level of the 
town at the flag-staff, so as to form a well-defined trough of red gravel at least 600 or 700 
feet wide at the top. From that point the bed-rock still rises, but more gently, toward the 
south, for a quarter of a mile or more, in the direction of Manzanita Hill. The rock, especially 
in its upper portion, is a clayey slate, which decomposes very rapidly when exposed to the action 
of air and water. At some points it was difficult to tell whether one was standing on the bed- 
rock, or on a mass of clay belonging to the gravel series. As a rule, the uppermost gravel of 
Manzanita Hill is quite fine, of a reddish color, and easily washed away. There are also strata of 
clay to be seen in it, which attain, on the eastern side of the hill, a thickness of six feet or more. 
These strata are seen to dip toward the southwest, at an angle of from 12° to 15°, which is about 
the position they might have been expected to assume if they were deposited on the sloping side 
of a bay or indentation between two hills, to one side of the main channel of the river. A nearly 
north and south section across the Little York gravel is represented on Plate F, Fig. 3. This 
figure is drawn so as to include the gravel on Christmas Hill, which will be described a little far- 
ther on. The position of the small narrow and deep channel, at d in the centre of the section, 
will be observed, as well as the broader channel of red gravel, extending from c to e. The summit 
of Manzanita Hill is at f, and that of Christmas Hill at a, the position of the bed-rock surface 
under the last-named elevation being unknown, but probably, as represented in the section, sloping 
to the south. The upper line representing the original surface of the gravel is, of course, only an 
approximation. 
At Empire Hill there is, at the bottom and middle of the channel, a mass of blue gravel thirty or 
forty feet in depth. Its general direction is east and west, but the drifting under the easterly bank 
shows that the course of the channel was not exactly straight from Scott’s Ravine to Empire Hill, 
but that there was a slight bend around to the north. The southern bank of Empire Hill is nearly 
washed away ; but on the northern one there is, above the blue gravel, a thickness of thirty or 
forty feet of red, the succession being the same as at Scott’s Ravine. Toward the west end of 
Empire Hill boulders of from one to three feet are common. They are found mostly in the upper 
thirty feet of the gravel, and many of them are quite angular, the corners being hardly rounded 
at all. 
The main mass of the Christmas Hill gravel covers a surface about three quarters of a mile long 
and an eighth of a mile wide ; or, in round numbers, about sixty acres, the longer axis having a 
nearly north and south (magnetic) direction. It is on the top of the ridge which separates Steep 
Hollow from Bear River, and is about midway between the two streams. The county road from 
Little York to Liberty Hill follows this ridge, and for half a mile is quite near the bank of gravel ; 
for some portions of the way, indeed, there are openings on both sides of the road, with just width 
enough between to allow teams to meet in safety. The top of the Christmas Hill is pretty flat, 
although sloping gradually from the highest point toward Bear River, Steep Hollow, and Little 
York, as far as the gravel extends. Then, on both sides, the pitch into the two cafions is quite 
