336 MINING INDUSTET. 



which form the main ridge to the north — here, in general, more highly meta- 

 morphosed — having a dip of about 45° to the eastward, and a strike of north 

 20° west, flanked on the east by the limestone body, which only extends to 

 the northern edge of the canon mouth. 



Kingston Canon is another of the characteristic gorges of the range, worn, 

 in this case, through slaty rocks; its sides, except near the mouth, are less 

 precipitous than those of Geneva Canon, and yet sufficiently grand when one 

 considers that looking up a lateral ravine, from the mining hamlet of Bunker 

 Hill, one can see the southern summit of the peak of the same name, rising over 

 5,000 feet, in a horizontal distance of 10,000 feet. The general course of the 

 caiion is at an oblique angle with the formation, which gives the appearance 

 of a greater thickness to the rocks than they really have. A large dike of 

 syenite, about 50 feet thick, of a close grain and dark-green color, occurs a 

 mile or two from the mouth of the canon, conformable with the inclosing 

 rocks, and similar, in composition and position, to that in Santa Fd Canon; it 

 differs in that it is impregnated with iron pyrites, which do not appear in the 

 former. Nearly parallel, and a few hundred feet above it, is a large quartz 

 vein, about 15 or 20 feet thick, apparently comformable in strike with the 

 stratification, but much contorted, especially in the ravines; parts of this have 

 been found rich in silver, and the ore reduced in a small five-stamp mill in the 

 canon. These seem to mark a line of metamorphic action, for on the western 

 slope of Bunker Hill, seemingly in a corresponding position, are found flexible 

 slates, carrying cubes of iron pyrites and a grayish marbleized limestone, a 

 metamorphic phase of one of the intercalated limestone strata of the slate 

 series, or, possibly, an upper member of the quartzite series. While the 

 caiion, in its lower part, is a narrow, precipitous gorge, between bare, rocky 

 cliffs, along which the large quartz vein and several smaller ones can be traced 

 for a considerable distance on the northern side, and the syenite dike, (or 

 ironstone, as the miners call it, on account of its hardness,) on either side, it 

 opens out above the axis of the eastern ridge, and at the bend, where the 

 main tributaries come together, forms a pretty mountain valley, with smooth, 

 grass-grown slopes. The northern fork of the caiion, with the two forks of 

 Big Creek Caiion, form a longitudinal depression, separating the two high ^ 



ridges, east and west, and probably occupy in part the axis of the main anti- j 



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