MINOOK CREEK GROUP. 37 
depth of 15 or 20 feet. Nuggets up to $33 in value have been taken from the creek, 
but so far as known not more than a total of $2,000 has been obtained, though the 
stream has been well prospected. The first prospect showed up so well that miners 
at once located the whole of the creek, and a number of good cabins were erected i m 
the different claims. Some ground sluicing was done on the lower part of the creek 
during the season of 1904, but no other work was done. 
ORIGIN OF THE GOLD. 
The great difference in the richness of the several creeks flowing through the high 
bench of Minook Creek, and the variation in the richness of claims and size of nug- 
gets on the same creek within the limits of the bench, show that the gold is not 
evenly distributed through the gravels of the bench. Thus Hunter Creek has so far 
shown no rich claims, while Little Minook Creek has been very rich in places, and 
along the latter the gold is very coarse on the upper claims but grows much finer 
toward the mouth (PI. VI, j, k, 1, p. 38), showing that probably the larger part of 
the gold in the lower portions of the stream has been washed down from the upper 
claims. The gold in the bench gravels was probably concentrated from local gold- 
bearing zones in the rocks worn away above the level of the high bench. How 
great a thickness of these rocks was disintegrated and carried away can not be told, 
but there may have been many hundred feet. The rocks were probably the same 
as those now forming the bed rock. The gold in the bench gravels is said to be well 
worn, but gold found in the gravels of a stream as large as Minook Creek is gen- 
erally well worn, and in this case we have no clue as to the length of time through 
which wearing may have continued. 
OTHER TRIBUTARIES OE MINOOK CREEK. 
RUBY CREEK. 
Ruby Creek flows into Minook from the west side about 9 miles from the Yukon. 
It is a stream carrying 300 to 500 miner's inches (7.5 to 12.5 second-feet) of water, 
with a grade of about 1 50 feet per mile in the lower part. In this part the valley is 
broadly V-shaped, with steeply sloping sides. The upper part was not seen. 
The first pay was taken out of the creek in 1901, and the total product is said to 
have been $13,000 or $14,000, although this estimate may be a little high. About 
$5,000 was reported during 1904. No pay has been found above H miles from the 
mouth of the creek, but it is claimed that no holes have been sunk to bed rock on 
account of the live water in the gravel. 
The bed rock is the calcareous schist, garnetiferous mica-schist, carbonaceous slate, 
chert, and grit, intruded by greenstones (diabase?). The bedded rocks strike almost 
north and south across the creek with the dip downstream (east). The alluvial 
deposits are 6 to 10 feet thick and 300 to 500 feet wide. In some places there is aim. >s1 
no muck and nowhere is its depth more than about 4 feet. The gravels are 5 to 7 
feet in thickness and the total thickness of muck and gravel is 6 to 10 feet, averaging 
nearer the lower figure. No large chert or quartzite bowlders are seen as in the creeks 
cutting the high bench. There are some gneiss pebbles, which indicate the probable 
presence of gneiss on the creek. The gravel is comparatively fine but contains a few 
bowlders a foot or more in diameter. 
The gold is ail on bed rock and is distributed through the whole width of the 
gravels. The only gold seen came from a point about one-half mile above Minook 
Creek. It was somewhat iron stained and in general rougher than the gold of the 
creeks cutting the high bench. The larger pieces were very smooth, but the smaller 
pieces were rough and most of the gold is rather flat. The gold is said to be rougher 
in the claims below. Nuggets up to about 2 ounces in weight are obtained. In the 
concentrates with the gold are large quantities of garnets that sometimes reach 1 inch 
