318 



Adventures in Scenery 



1 1 /2 miles wide lay in the path of a stream that carried the debris 

 of gold-bearing rocks. The source of the alluvial debris was 

 near-by in slates such as are seen on both sides of the limestone. 

 These slates contained and still exhibit numerous narrow seams 

 and stringers of gold-bearing quartz with occasional small 

 pockets of exceedingly rich ore. Erosion of the slates by 

 tributaries of the main stream finally brought down to the main 

 valley the gold and quartz together with the softer slates of the 



FIG. 94. 

 tual size.) 



Still 



Courtesy U. S. Bureau of Mines 

 Crystallized gold from Nigger Hill, near Jamestown. (Ac- 



hills. Much of the gold was retained on the limestone riffles of 

 the Columbia Basin. As the gravels of the basin have been 

 formed locally, they consist largely of sub-angular and little 

 worn fragments of quartz. These gravels with their accom- 

 panying gold found ideal lodgment in the crevices and potholes 

 of the eroded limestone bedrock, and there remained until dis- 

 covered in 1853. The gold was very coarse, and the finding 

 of a nugget weighing a pound or so was so usual as to attract 



