DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN THE BLACK HILLS. 293 



rested, he was taken back to prison, and hung for the crime for which he 

 was originally sentenced ; but before the execution he drew a map of the 

 locality where he claimed to have discovered gold, and the routes traveled 

 in going to and from the agencies, with the distances and names of the 

 principal streams marked unmistakably in the sketch. He stated, that he 

 followed down Hat Creek to the south fork of the Cheyenne, crossed that 

 stream, and on the second creek of any size entering the Cheyenne from 

 the north below the mouth of the Hat Creek he discovered gold about ten 

 miles from the Cheyenne, among low hills, but outside the main range of 

 the Black Hills. He described the locality as among hills capped with high 

 and thick gravel bars of large size. Here he found rich gravel, and in a 

 short time obtained his sample of gold by washing the pay dirt in a small 

 tin dish. 



A tracing of the map drawn by Kensler is before me while I am 

 writing. On comparing it with the map drawn by Dr. M'Gillycuddy, topo- 

 grapher of the expedition, I find that it agrees very closely with the latter 

 in regard to distances, directions, and the bends of the Cheyenne, and that 

 the stream on which Kensler discovered gold was either Amphibious Creek 

 or French Creek, probably the former. Quite extensive gravel deposits are 

 known to occur in the vicinity, and it is probable that Kensler was the first 

 discoverer of gold in the Black Hills, obtaining his pay dirt from the small 

 ravines and gulches among these gravel beds, where the gold had been 

 concentrated by heavy rains. Should these elevated gravel deposits on 

 further exploration be found to contain throughout their thickness sufficient 

 gold to warrant working by the hydraulic process, water can be conveyed 

 from the streams in the Hills to them in many places under a considerable 

 head, as they are elevated only about 3,800 feet above the sea, while the 

 streams, fifteen miles in the interior, are flowing through valleys at an ele- 

 vation of 5,000 feet. On Rapid Creek, a large volume of water, at least 

 2,000 miner's inches, under a head of 75 feet to the mile, can be made 

 available for working these high bars above the valley, at a moderate 

 expenditure of capital and labor required to construct the flumes. Only 

 two streams, Rapid and Minnekata, having gravel deposits of tins character 

 in their valleys, form a continuous stream of water to the Cheyenne ; the 



