PROSPECTING ON RAPID CREEK. 271 



ume of water available for the purpose so near at hand, I think that it is 

 possible to work them with a good profit. Where the Indian trail ascends 

 the hill on the south side of the valley are three large elevated bars. The 

 lowest, at an elevation of about 40 feet above the creek, covers about four 

 acres, and appears to be 30 feet in thickness. A drift run in on bed-rock 

 showed a foot of compact cement gravel full of nodules of hematite iron 

 ore resting on the soft sandstone of the Red Beds, which gave, on testing, 

 an average of three colors, or about one-third of a cent to the pan. 



The bed rock pitched into the center of the bar, which was com- 

 posed of bowlders and gravel, at least 50 per cent, being limestcne and 

 sandstone, the rest slate, quartzite, and quartz in all the varieties found 

 in the area drained by this stream. Above this bar were two others, 

 at elevations of 100 and 300 feet above the creek, which have been 

 described in the chapter on " The Deposits in the Foothills." A similar 

 deposit covers the foothills on the opposite side of the ravine, just east of 

 the lower bar; but with this exception all the elevated bars are on the 

 north side of the valley, which extends into the plains a mile and a half 

 wide, bounded on the south by a bare range of Red Bed hills. On the 

 north, a continuous bar, 30 feet high above the flats, extends from the 

 Indian trail down to the small branch heading in the cluster of springs 

 about three miles below. This bar extends along the valley for three 

 quarters of a mile, and occupies a triangular area of about two hundred 

 acres, bounded by the small branch entering from the north. On the top 

 it is as level as a floor, and on testing the gravel at its edge we obtained 

 in a number of places three to five colors of quite coarse gold, or at least 

 half a cent to a cent to the pan, although at the edges of the deposit the 

 gravel was not over 20 inches thick, resting on soft red sandstone of the 

 Red Beds. For want of time my assistants were unable to thoroughly 

 prospect this extensive bar, but it was the opinion of John W. Allen, who 

 made the discovery, that it would pay well when worked by bringing a 

 good head of water on top and ground-sluicing the gravel and soft bed- 

 rock. Several bars of this character intervened between it and the Hills, 

 which gave equally good results on prospecting. In places the bed-rock 

 was soft, white, decomposed gypsum. Below the branch before mentioned 



