74 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY, 1902. [buia.213. 
that b} T its use and the construction of drainage ditches the gold can 
be easily and profitably secured. As pans are reported to run from 
1.7 to 5.5 cents each below the canyon, with a maximum yield of $1 
on bed rock, their anticipations seem to be justified. 
ORIGIN OF THE GOLD. 
The gold from the various streams on which operations are con- 
ducted is rather uniform in form, color, and assay value. It gener- 
ally occurs in flattened scales or grains, and is but rarely rough and 
irregular. It is clean looking and bright yellow in color, and its assay 
values are reported to vary from $18 or $18.50 per ounce on Miller 
Gulch and the upper Chesna to $18.72 on the lower Chesna. 
One-ounce nuggets are not unusual on Miller Gulch, and one piece 
is reported which weighed 4 ounces. On Ruby Gulch the largest nug- 
get found is valued at $12.75, but nuggets are very rare on the lower 
Chesna, the gold being in the form of thin, flat scales. These varia- 
tions in coarseness and in assay value are of the kind which would be 
expected if the source of the gold were in the region near the head of 
Miller and Ruby gulches, where the gold is coarser and the values are 
lower. 
Some of the operators of the district, admitting that the gold comes 
from the vicinity of upper Slate Creek and Chesna River, maintain, 
with much show of reason, that it is derived there from the "round 
wash," which is particularly heavy about the head of Miller Gulch 
and Slate Creek. It is also present on the divide between Ruby 
Gulch and the next stream east, so that the advocates of this theory 
are able to prove that each stream at present worked to a profit drains 
an area in which the "round wash" is found. They likewise regard 
the smooth surface of the gold as evidence that it is waterworn and 
has therefore been brought from some extraneous source, as is so 
evidently true of the "round wash." 
Some facts, however, are distinctly opposed to this hypothesis, and 
others admit of as ready explanation on another basis. 
A small stream, on which a group of claims known as the "Big 
Four " has been staked, heads opposite Miller Gulch and flows down 
to the Chistochina Glacier. The heaviest deposit of the "round 
wash" known in the region occurs on the slopes drained by this 
brook, which seems therefore to be more favorably situated than 
Miller Gulch, relative to this deposit as a source of the gold; but the 
Big Four claims yield fine gold in moderate amount and are not to be 
compared in richness to Miller Gulch. Furthermore, Ruby Gulch 
and the creek next east of it seem to be equally favorably situated in 
relation to the deposit of the "wash" which occupies the divide 
between them, yet one has yielded operators a handsome return and 
the other is not profitable. 
