VALLEY OF EAPID CREEK. • 267 



RAPID CREEK. 



The north fork of Rapid Creek, heading in several small branches just 

 west of Custer Peak, where the limestone of the divide bounds the area of 

 slates, is slightly larger than Castle Creek, and near its union with that 

 stream it winds through a deep and narrow canon in the slates. Gold was 

 discovered in paying quantities on this branch by the miners, but the 

 claims were not prospected enough to determine the value of the placers up 

 to the time I left the Hills. For four miles below the forks Rapid Creek 

 winds and twists through a deep and contracted canon, cutting across a 

 belt of very rugged and broken peaks, an extension of the ridge from 

 Harney Peak northwest to this point. Vertical cliffs of slates rise several hun- 

 dred feet on either side of the stream, surmounted by high rocky hills, cov- 

 ered with pine, the greater portion of which has been killed by fire, leaving 

 the bare and decaying trunks standing. The bottom of the gorge is choked 

 with a dense mass of tall spruce trees, tangled with bushes and fallen tim- 

 ber, making it necessary at the time we first explored the canon to wade 

 our horses along the channel of the stream. Afterward the miners cut a 

 trail down the canon, making the journey on horseback along its rocky 

 bed less difficult. There are a few high bars along the sides of the canon, 

 covered with dead and fallen spruce trees ; but the main gravel deposits 

 are found in the bottom of the gorge itself. 



Below the canon the valle}^ of Rapid becomes more open, and large 

 and extensive gravel flats and high bars are seen on either bank of the 

 stream. In places the valley contracts among steep and rocky hills to a 

 narrow gorge, but does not become a canon until fifteen miles below the 

 fork, where the stream enters a limestone formation, whence, for a distance 

 of four miles, it is almost impassable for horsemen. Only near the forks 

 has the timber been destroyed by fire, and elsewhere through the valley of 

 this stream the hill-sides are covered with pine of good quality, while near 

 the foothills small groves of oak and elm grow along the banks of the 

 creek. In the more open portions of the valley broad grass flats skirt its 

 banks or cover the high gravel bars situated at the numerous bends of the 



