164 THE AURIFEROUS GRAVELS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 
§2. You Bet and Red Dog. 
The road from Little York after crossing Steep Hollow follows up the line of Wilcox Ravine 
towards You Bet. The country rock is the ordinary slate of the region. On the east of the ravine 
is Chicken Point, with high gravel extending nearly to the edge of Steep Hollow Cation. The road 
rises rapidly, and, at a point a little less than half a mile from the town of You Bet, strikes the 
main mass of gravel, which covers without any material exception an area of twelve or fifteen 
hundred acres. A line drawn in a southwesterly (magnetic) direction from the end of Chicken 
Point, for a distance of a mile and three quarters, would mark nearly the southeastern boundary 
of this gravel. Starting from the same point and running for the same distance in a nearly north- 
west (magnetic) direction along the base of the Sugar Loaf and Chalk Bluffs gives us, approxi- 
mately, the northeast line of the gravel as far as Boston Hill, near the canon of the Little Green- 
horn. Beyond this point lies the gravel of Buckeye Hill, Hunt’s Hill, and other places, which 
will be noticed farther on. The northwestern boundary of the gravel in question is an irregular 
line running to the northwest of You Bet, and including Red Dog and the mines of Independence 
and Bunker hills. It must not be supposed that there are absolutely no points within these limits 
which are not covered with gravel; but they are not many in number. 
To the northeast, the Sugar Loaf and Chalk Bluffs form as it were a high, steep wall, at the foot 
of which the highest gravel and bed-rock are found. How far the gravel extends underneath the 
voleanic material of which the bluffs are composed, if at all, is a question for future consideration. 
From the foot of the bluff towards the west the general slope of the country is more moderate, 
though decided. The surface, however, is by no means level and smooth. The town of You Bet, 
for example, near the head of Wilcox Ravine, is built upon a sharp ridge of gravel, along the comb 
of which there is room for only one street. To the south, the slope is rapid towards Steep Hollow ; 
and to the north there is also a considerable depression — Missouri Caiion —- between You Bet and 
Red Dog, while to the west, towards Pine Hill, the slope is quite gradual. The town of Red Dog 
is also built upon the gravel between Missouri Cafion and Arkansas Cajion. 
At Pine Hill, the western end of the district, the gravel is spread over a nearly level plateau, of 
several acres in extent, fifty feet or more above the gravel at Waloupa, which lies on the opposite 
side of a ravine. The principal points of interest on Pine Hill are at Hubbard’s Tunnel and near 
Cahel’s house. The Waloupa* Diggings are at the southeastern extremity of a spur of slate be- 
tween two ravines which unite below to form Birdseye Cafion. Across the ravine from Waloupa, 
and to the south of You Bet, the principal mines —or those to which reference will have to be 
made in the following pages —are those of Niece & West, Williams, Heydliff, Brown and Mallory, 
and Hyatt or Haight. To the east of the mines just mentioned, and in part separated from them 
by Sardine Flat, lies the high gravel of Chicken Point. At the head of the ravine the gravel is 
continuous from You Bet to Chicken Point. From Chicken Point northwesterly the gravel is con- 
tinuous along the base of the bluff at the head of the ravines which unite to make Missouri Cafion. 
These mines have been worked mostly by Williams, Timmens, and Brockmann. Beyond these, 
and separated by only a small interval, come Huzzey’s claims, and the openings on Darling’s and 
Boston hills. At Red Dog there is gravel on both sides of Arkansas Caiion ; the mine first to 
the north of the caiion being called Independence Hill. The continuation of Independence Hill 
at the point where Williams has another claim is known as Bunker Hill. 
In attempting to trace the geological relations of this mass of gravel, difficulties upon difficulties 
arise so rapidly that it seems almost impossible ever to hit upon any explanation of the facts 
which will satisfy all conditions. In what follows, therefore, I shall try, not so much to establish 
* The correct orthography of the name Waloupa is involved in considerable doubt. Most persons have 
supposed the name to be of Indian origin; but there are some who say that the claim was first opened 
by a party of Spaniards who gave to it the name of Guadaloupe, which in time became corrupted into 
Waloupa, or Wauloopa, or any one of a number of other ways of writing it. 
