WHISKEY CHEEK. 259 



phuret of silver. He had found it while wandering about in the Hills, 

 having been lost for some time in this vicinity. On testing it with a blow- 

 pipe, it proved to be only clay-slate, and did not contain a trace of metal. 

 It was soft, jet-black in color, with a luster resembling very closely the 

 mineral for which lie had mistaken it. 



Up to the time I left the gulch (August 1, 1876) no valuable quartz 

 ledges had been discovered, the attention of every one having been given 

 to prospecting the placers. The gravel deposits of the Spring Creek dis- 

 trict, especially for several miles above and below the point of discovery, 

 are extensive in area and very favorably situated for working. The water- 

 supply is ample, and the fall of the stream sufficiently great to enable water 

 to be carried above the tops of the elevated bars without difficulty and 

 with little expense, while there is room and grade enough in the flats, in 

 places, admitting of bed-rock flumes being finally put in, and the whole 

 thickness of the gravel flats, as well as the tailings from the elevated bars, 

 being economically worked. Timber of suitable size and quantity for the 

 construction of sluices, flumes, and trestles is to be found growing abun- 

 dantly in the immediate vicinity, as well as for various house-building pur- 

 poses and fuel. The gold is coarse, heavy, and easily saved in sluices, and 

 contains but little silver or impurities to decrease its value. Thus it may 

 be concisely stated, that the gold-placers of this district, worked by the 

 systems and processes which the experience of twenty-five years has led 

 the miners of the Pacific slope to adopt, will pay a handsome return for 

 the labor required to open the deposits and extract the gold. 



WHISKEY CREEK. 



A small area of the Spring Creek district remains to be described, 

 comprising the extreme southern end of the belt of clay-slates and quartzites 

 included between Spring Creek and the granite ridges and spurs extending 

 east from Harney Peak. The surface of this region is rugged and broken, 

 though not as mountainous as the granitic area to the south about the 

 headwaters of Wiwi Creek. The valleys and glades are covered with 

 groves of burr-oak of medium size, the crests of the hills with pine, while 

 the bottoms of the ravines and gulches are thickly overgrown with alder, 



