ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 47 
in width, it is evident that there is here an enormous body of gravel. 
The overburden, usually termed muck by the miners, is a fine silt or 
clay, in general of a dark-gray color. This overlies sands and gravels 
which appear to increase in coarseness toward bed rock. The gravels 
are mostly well rounded except on bed rock, where they are angular. 
They are made up in the main of mica schist, with much vein quartz, 
and also carry granite, which at the mouth of Nugget Creek pre- 
dominates over the other material. The pebbles of gray porphyritic 
rock have already been referred to. 
Claims were first staked on Smallwood Creek in November, 1904, 
but no considerable work appears to have been done until 1906. Dur- 
ing 1906 and 1907 probably a dozen claims were worked. This pros- 
pecting has been sufficient to establish the fact that the gravels of at 
least the upper 2 miles of Smallwood Creek and some of its tribu- 
taries are auriferous, and at some localities values have been found. 
Perhaps the most significant feature is the reported finding of good 
prospects at No. 17 below, at a depth of 317 feet. The writer was un- 
able to visit this locality, but it appears that the discovery in suf- 
ficiently encouraging to warrant further developments. If values 
have been found in this lower part of the creek, as they are known 
to occur in the upper part, it augurs well for the occurrence of gold 
between. 
So little ground has been opened up that it is impossible to make 
any generalizations as to the width of the pay streak. It is reported 
that on one claim values have been found for a width of 120 feet, and 
that these occur in the lower 3 to 4 feet of gravels and in the decom- 
posed bed rock to a depth of 2 to 2* feet. 
The gold seen by the writer is medium fine and occurs in small 
scales. Nuggets are relatively rare, the two largest reported being 
valued at $2.75 and $11.50. The gold is said to run about $18.11 to 
the ounce. 
The ground in the upper mile of the creek is said to be thawed 
and is shallow enough to be worked by dredges or open-cut methods. 
The meager information here set forth clearly indicates that this 
creek and its tributaries are well worth careful prospecting. The 
lower valley is so wide that it will be expensive to prospect it care- 
fully, and it would appear that this can best be done by grouping 
the claims and systematically crosscutting the entire body of gravel. 
MINING METHODS. 
The methods of mining in the Fairbanks region (1905) are the 
same, as those used extensively for similar types of deposits in the 
Klondike region. The methods have been necessarily determined by 
the grade of the valleys, the thickness and character <d' the de- 
