EAYDEX.J 



GEOLOGY SOUTH PAEK. 43 



sometimes 80 or 90 feet wide, then closes up and disappears. About 

 $40,000 of gold has been taken from it. Many of these lodes spread out 

 in every direction in small branch seams, and lines of fracture run in 

 every direction, filled with ore, occasionally very rich. Sometimes these 

 branches will come together in one lode and again spread out, thus be- 

 coming a great source of perplexity and cost to the miner. The Printer 

 Boy is probably the most valuable lode in this gulch, and has yielded 

 rich results to the company. It is managed by two very polite and in- 

 telligent gentlemen, Mr. J. Marshall Paul, formerly of Philadelphia, and 

 Mr. Charles Hill. This lode has now been explored for a horizontal dis- 

 tance of 3,000 feet. The width between the walls varies from 4 feet to 

 10 or 12, but sometimes pinches up to not more than an inch. The 

 group is mostly decomposed clay with now and then masses of quartzite. 

 One hundred and twenty thousand dollars of gold have been taken out 

 of this lode, which inclines about 6° to the west. Carbonates of cop- 

 per and lead, iron pyrites, zinc blende, &c., are found. The walls are 

 remarkably well defined. Up to this time only the decomposed ore has 

 been taken out. There is connected with this mine a successful lo-stamp 

 mill, to which 10 stamps more are to be added. It is supposed there 

 that the yield of gold will be $1,000 per day. In California Gulch, as in 

 all the other gulches, the drift material is very great and entirely local. 

 Trachytes, quartzites, and some limestones compose the rocks ; the iron 

 ores are abundant, and in the lodes there is much iron pyrites. The 

 vast amount of the oxide of iron, mingled with the loose detrital deposits, 

 gives character to them. The clays have an intense rusty-yellow color, 

 and the broken rocks and pebbles are often cemented together into a 

 conglomerate. The oxide of iron covers and permeates all the superfi- 

 cial deposits, which are very thick. These thin out toward the head of 

 the gulch, but thicken down to the expansion of the gulch into the 

 Arkansas Valley. 



At the head of Stray-Horse Gulch a very valuable iron mine has been 

 opened. The stray masses of hematite that cover.the surface, mingled 

 with the drift, are abundant, but the detached masses from the moun- 

 tains cover the lower portion of the slope to such an extent that, even 

 in tlie channels of the little streams, it is difficult to find the basis rocks. 

 The prospector followed the float-ores up to a certain elevation on the 

 side of the mountain, and w^here it ceased to appear he sunk a shaft 

 and found the vein at no great depth. This vein is well shown in places 

 in Iowa Gulch, extending directiy across the strata in a direction a little 

 west of north and east of south, and here it is at least 100 feet in thick- 

 ness. It appears high up in the south wall of the gulch, so that its 

 relations with the other rocks are apparent. The vein is at least 100 

 feet in width, and must have been segregated in a great fissure passing 

 down through the quartzites into underlying schists. It must extend 

 along the sides of the mountain for several miles, for the distance from 

 the opening near Stray-Horse Gulch and Iowa Gulch is about six miles. 

 This indicates a vast body of iron ore in this region. The iron-ore bed 

 trends about north and south, and extends down nearly vertical tlirough 

 the quartzites. The iron ore is said to carry gold enough to pay mod- 

 erately. Excellent galena, carrying silver, is found in the quartzites 

 near the iron vein. 



On the south side of Iowa Gulch there is an immense accumulation 

 of trachyte, gneissic, and quartzite bowlders, the former predominating. 

 The quartzite has fallen down from the north side of the gulch, while 

 the gneiss has been brought down from the head of the gulch by glacial 

 action. In the side of Iowa Creek we find the blue limestone lying 



