50 FORTYMILE, BIRCH CREEK, AND FAIRBANKS PLACERS, [bull. 2E 
ditions were favorable, they could be stripped from the underlyin 
rock. The water supply in this area is a very limited one. 
On the main creek methods are in use adapted to the depth an 
character of the ground, most of the work being done bv the steai 
thawer. Shafts are sunk to bed rock and drifting continued hori 
zontally to the limits of the pay streak, while the dirt is hoiste< 
to the surface in buckets, sometimes by hand windlass, but general 1; 
by horsepower or steam hoist. A tripod is erected over the shaf 
and the rope or cable from the bucket passed over a pulley at tin 
top of the tripod and thence by other pulleys to the source of powe 
(PI. IX, .4). Horsepower is cheaper, and with it about 60 cubi< 
yards can be hoisted a day from a depth of 20 to 30 feet. One outfit 
by the use of a 12-horsepower boiler steam thawing apparatus anc| 
hoist, raised about 80 cubic yards in a day of ten hours from twcl 
shafts 45 and 53 feet in depth. 
It has been found cheaper to drift in the summer season, for the 
cost of winter work is about 60 per cent of the output and of summer! 
work only about 40 per cent. The thawed dirt can be dumped im- 
mediately into the sluice boxes and Avashed. There are several mile& 
of ditching to bring water from the various tributaries, but in a dry\' 
season the supply is insufficient. In the first week of July, 1903, there 
had been already three weeks of dry weather and much of the work, 
was at a standstill. 
At a few localities on Chicken Creek, Myers Fork, Stonehouse^ 
Creek, and Irene Gulch, claims are worked by open cuts. Work cam 
commence May 1 and continue to September 20. 
Three claims were being worked on the upper portion of Myers 
Fork, where the bed rock is oli vine-basalt and the gravels vary from 
8 to 20 feet in thickness. About 2^ feet of gravels are washed, but 
most of the gold occurs on bed rock. It is coarser than that on the 
Chicken and runs from $80 to $100 to the box length. 
On the Stonehouse, where a few men were working, the depth to 
bed rock is about 14 feet, and pay is found through 3 to 4 feet ofj 
gravel. On the rim to the east of the Stonehouse the depth varies up- 
to a maximum of about 12 feet. The gold found here is rough and 
dark colored and may have been derived from the shales cut by 
the ditch just above this locality that are similar to those in which 
gold has been found in place one- fourth mile farther east. Irene 
Gulch enters the Stonehouse from the east, It is very short, hardly 
more than a sag in the slopes of the main valley, but is interesting in 
that it also heads in the shale area. The bed rock in the lower por- 
tion is sandstone containing nodules with plant remains. Water is 
brought by a ditch 2,800 feet in length from the upper valley of the 
