Geology and Mineralogy. 313 



mostly carry the gold, as the marbles do not show much evidence 

 of veins. In this gulch are two levels ; the higher one, at the 

 head of the gulch, had not been worked, while the pay gold had 

 been found mainly at the lower level, near the mouth of the gulch. 



Chicken Creek, so-called because its gold occurs in grains the 

 size oi chicken feed, drains a wide area toward the Ketchumstock 

 Hills to the southwest, and the actual source of the gold is less 

 readily defined. The gravel contains fragments of granite, quartz- 

 ite, schist, and marble. 



On Napoleon Creek conglomerate forms the bed-rock near the 

 mouth. The gravels contain fragments of quartzite, vein quartz, 

 hornblende-granite, and various eruptive rocks, and the source of 

 the gold is assumed to be the conglomerate, which is made up of 

 fragments of the older rocks, for the rocks higher up the gulch 

 above the conglomerates have not been found to carry much 

 gold. 



The most trustworthy reports from the Klondike region indi- 

 cate that the exceptionally rich placer gravels thus far found 

 occur in side valleys entering the main Klondike Valley from the 

 south, such as Bonanza, Eldorado, .and Hunker creeks, and in 

 some gulches across the divide tributary to Indian or Stewart 

 rivers. No gold in paying quantities had been found on the 

 Klondike itself. The placer deposit generally consists of 10 to 

 15 feet of frozen muck and decayed vegetation at the surface, 

 then a gravel bed that rarely pays; below that a clay selvage, 

 under which is pay dirt from 1 to 5 feet in thickness resting on 

 the upturned edges of the schist, from which it is separated by a 

 clay selvage. The pay streak or bottom of the old channel is 

 usually very regular and straight, not following the bends of the 

 present stream. " 



3. Geological nomenclature. — The general secretaries of the 

 International Geological Congress have made a report of the 

 action of the congress relative to geological nomenclature, of 

 which the following is a translation : 



The seventh Geological Congress, which convened at St. Peters- 

 burg on the 17th to the 24th of August 1897, considered, accord- 

 ing to the announcement of the circulars of the committee of 

 organization, the questions of stratigraphical classification and 

 nomenclature. 



After discussing the question in the session of August 18 (30) 

 the Congress passed the following votes : 



" The Congress is of the opinion that the historic method should 

 be adopted in seeking to make the nomenclature more natural." 



"The council is charged with naming a committee for the study 

 of the principles of classification in the spirit of the first clause." 



The council thereupon decided to compose the committee of a 

 number as restricted as possible, but, in order not to deprive it of 

 the cooperation of geologists capable of rendering assistance in 

 the work, added certain consulting members. The following 

 committee was appointed. 



