POSITION OF THE CHANNEL AT YOU BET, 165 
a theory or announce the solution of a difficult problem, as to state as clearly as I can the facts 
upon which a theory will have to be based and the conditions which must be satisfied. 
Proceeding upon the assumption that the gravel had been deposited from the waters of some 
river, the first natural inquiry was as to the original cause of the channel: and, as a key to the 
solution of the problem, barometric measurements of the altitude of the bed-rock, wherever it could 
be found exposed, were made. The necessary observations were taken with great care. The 
barometers were frequently compared with each other ; and in almost every instance synchronous 
observations at the hotel in You Bet, and at the different stations in the mines, were obtained. 
None of the stations visited were more than a mile and a half from the hotel nor more than 400 
feet above or below it. Under these circumstances we are warranted in saying that in no case can 
there be a relative error of more than a few feet. The altitude adopted for the hotel at You Bet 
was fixed by comparing the observations of several days with those of the station barometer at 
Colfax, and, at the worst, cannot be far out of the way. There have been, furthermore, from time 
to time, partial surveys of the claims in this district ; and, in some instances, differences of altitude 
have been determined by the spirit-level. Wherever this has been the case the results have been 
almost identical with those obtained by us in our barometric series. 
On Pine Hill no observation was taken at the top of the gravel; but there is a descent of fully 
100 feet from the average level of the summit of the gravel plateau to the point where Mr. Hubbard 
has run in his tunnel. My observation was taken near the mouth of the tunnel, and showed an 
altitude of 2,652 feet. According to Mr. Hubbard’s statement this was about five feet below the 
point on “the rim” where gravel was first struck in the tunnel. Farther in, the bed-rock was 
nearly on the same level, — possibly one or two feet deeper in some places ; thus 2,655 feet may 
be taken as the altitude of the Pine Hill bed-rock. The length of Hubbard’s Tunnel is between 
five and six hundred feet in all, and its course at the mouth is nearly N. 40° W. (magnetic). Be- 
yond Pine Hill there is no chance for an outlet unless by way of Mule Cajon, which empties into 
Greenhorn. This cafion having been rich in gold, it is probable that there was once an overflow 
from Pine Hill, if nothing more, in this direction. The most rational supposition is that the depo- 
sition of gravel gradually filled up the original channel, until it caused the water to spread over the 
Pine Hill region and then overflow into the adjacent low country to the northwest. That the 
main channel, however, could not have run at first in this direction is shown by the elevation of 
the bed-rock. And this idea is strengthened by the character of the Pine Hill gravel. At the 
bottom are found large boulders of blue and white quartz, — said to be eight or ten feet in diame- 
ter, — together with more or less decomposed material, while the main mass of the gravel all the 
way to the top is a rather fine washed quartz. Such a combination points rather to the filling up 
of a lateral ravine after the main channel has outgrown its original bed, —the large boulders not 
showing signs of any great amount of wear. To the south and west of Hubbard’s Tunnel the slate 
bed-rock rises to such a height as to preclude the possibility of the channel’s having had an outlet 
in that direction; there is, to be sure, a small ravine leading down from the mouth of the tunnel, 
but no signs that it can ever have been the path of the stream from which the gravel was deposited. 
A quarter of a mile to the southeast there was a small extent of bed-rock exposed, the altitude of 
which I made to be 2,677 feet ; this was near Cahel’s house. The amount of bed-rock uncovered 
was so small that it was impossible to decide whether I was in the centre or only on a piece of the 
rim of a channel. The country slopes very rapidly towards Birdseye Cafion. From where I stood, 
the banks at Empire Hill and Little York were plainly visible across the cafion of Steep Hollow, 
showing that there was plenty of room for the old streams to have formed a junction anywhere 
within quite an extended area of country. The low divide to the southwest of Cold Spring Moun 
tain and the Secrettown gap were easily distinguishable, and it was not hard to see the grounds 
on which the theory was based of there once having been a channel from Waloupa or Pine Hill by 
way of Cariboo to Secrettown and beyond. The probability of the correctness of any such theory, 
however, diminishes very rapidly in the presence of others which are so much more worthy of 
credence, 
