THE GRAVEL: 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 River 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 fine 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 River, 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 smali 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. 
The largest of these openings is about 350 feet in diameter, with a bank of gravel about thirty feet 
high 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 channel of running water, as to a hole 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 
from above, 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 River 
and Steep Hollow. Toward the junction of the streams the slope is gradual, until the steep de- 
scent into the caiion is reached, as is common in this region, wherever there is a ridge between 
two cahons. 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 River. The most important one on the 
Bear River side is known as Nigger Ravine, and that on the Steep Hollow side as Cariboo Ravine. 
Between the heads of these two ravines is a low divide, or saddle, which connects the top of 
Manzanita Hill with the subordinate ridge between Nigger Ravine and Steep Hollow. On the 
highest point of this latter ridge, not far from the saddle just mentioned, there is a small patch of 
rolled 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 
