172 THE AURIFEROUS GRAVELS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 
hood where there is an east course for even a short distance. The only case of the kind which 
came to our notice was where the present Greenhorn, a little above Quaker Hill, runs for a couple 
of hundred feet in an east and northeast direction in order to get around a high spur of rock. 
I have thus completed the arrangement of my notes on the You Bet and Red Dog gravel deposit, 
and shown where the main difficulties of the problem lie, There seems to be no one answer to the 
questions proposed which will satisfy all the conditions. If we suppose the deep channel below 
You Bet to be the continuation of the stream which flowed by Red Dog, we are confronted by a 
rise in the bed-rock, which obliges the water to run up hill, or, at the best, with an almost abso- 
lutely level river bed for a distance of more than a mile and a half. Low places and holes may 
occur, it is true, in the beds of running streams, and there may be long stretches where the fall is 
only slight; but if that had been the case between Red Dog and the site of Niece and West’s 
claim, it seems to me that we should find a finer gravel than we do find, or perhaps only a sandy 
mud. And, furthermore, wherever the deep bed-rock is exposed, the indications are strong that 
there was once a current of considerable rapidity. It is indeed possible, in spite of these objec- 
tions, that the connection of the channels was as has been supposed, but the most that can be 
claimed for the theory is that there has been as yet no insuperable obstacle found in the way. 
If, on the other hand, we attempt to find any different source for the You Bet channel we are 
soon driven to the wall by the high slate-rock whose existence is proven at so many places between 
Chicken Point and Boston Hill. The nearly uniform elevation of the highest bed-rock, at the four 
points where measurements were taken, is rather remarkable, though the coincidence may have 
been only accidental. The general slope from the highest: bed-rock towards the west is in all cases 
very rapid, as is seen by reference to the observations at different points lower down. These cir- 
cumstances point rather to a long easterly “rim,” than to a district through which a channel from 
the east is to be looked for. To be sure, there is a possibility that the wpper part of the You Bet 
channel may have skirted along the base of the bluff; and to such a theory a degree of probability 
is given by the shape of the bed-rock at Hussey’s Mine, of which an east and west section has been 
already given (see Plate F, Fig. 5), though there is no other positive evidence to adduce, and there 
are some reasons which may be urged in opposition. 
And, again, it is possible that the key to the solution of the problem still lies hidden underneath 
the lava flow which terminates so abruptly at Chalk Bluffs. There may have been a small water- 
course — or even more than one — which had its origin at some point considerably higher up the 
mountains, and down the steep bed of which the lava found an easy path. Indeed, the presence 
of the lava itself indicates that there was some shallow trough in which it could flow. On this 
supposition we should not look upon the You Bet channel (in its deepest portion) as a part of a 
long and deep stream, but rather as the lower end of a large ravine or small creek, originally dis- 
tinct from the Red Dog River, but connected with it after the partial filling up of the channels with 
gravel. As a part and parcel of this same theory we can suppose that the original Missouri Cation 
is represented in part by the gravel which now extends from the Cozzens and Garber shaft to Red 
Dog. In these suppositions there is nothing incompatible with the final covering over of a large 
extent of country, including not only the ravines but the intervening ridges. In opposition, chiefly 
to the latter part of the theory, we have Mr. Bowman’s observations of the Red Dog pot-holes, 
and his conviction that the stream made a bend to the east at that point. And, furthermore, in 
supposing the original drainage to have been almost identical with that of the present dayfand that 
there was a caiion or ravine from the east, corresponding to the present Missouri Caiion and empty- 
ing into the main channel at Red Dog, we meet with difficulty in fixing both the outlet below Red 
Dog and the source of the cafion to the east. If we. could have seen the ground before the accu- 
mulation of tailings in Missouri Cafion it is barely possible that a more satisfactory conclusion 
might have been reached. The fact that there was slate-rock to be seen in the bed of the cafion, 
between the high gravel at the base of the bluffs and the deep gravel at Red Dog, taken in con- 
nection with the depth of the gravel at the Cozzens and Garber shaft, and the general appearance 
of the country, may have been an important element in the settling of our doubts. 
