78 FAIRBANKS AND RAMPART QUADRANGLES. 
much easier and the valley is wider with gentler slopes, especially on 
the north side. The rocks of the valley are the same as along Little 
Minook Creek. The lower part is entirely in diabase. 
The total output of the creek was estimated by Donald McLean at 
about $150,000, and the output for the year 1904 at about $17,000. 
The steep grade of the lower part of the creek has allowed little 
accumulation of alluvium, but in the upper part the deposits have 
reached a depth of 12 to 30 feet, of which gravel forms the lower 4 
or 6 feet. The gravels are angular and largely composed of diabase 
with well-washed quartzite bowlders from the bench gravels through 
which the stream has cut. 
In the gravels are many bones of bison, musk ox, mammoth, and 
horse. A very fine specimen of the skull of Bison alleni, with the 
shell upon the horns, was taken out of Donald McLean's claim, 
No. 25, near the head of the creek, by Mr. McLean and Thomas 
Evans. This is the only specimen of this species that has been re- 
ported from Alaska. It was carefully removed and is now in the 
National Museum at Washington. Some teeth obtained by C. W. 
Peck from gravel next to bed rock on the same claim and referred to 
Dr. T. W. Stanton for identification were called by him " horse teeth 
of Pleistocene or more recent age." 
Mining. — There are 29 500-foot claims upon the creek, numbered 
from the mouth upward, the upper 9 or 10 of which are said to have 
paid wages or more upon working. The pay streak is 30 to 00 feet 
wide and 1 to 6 feet thick, averaging probably 3 feet, but gold is 
sometimes found through the whole thickness of the gravel. The 
gravels were reported to carry $10 per square yard on one claim, 
which is. probably the highest value on the creek, the values on other 
claims running down to amounts too small to pay for working. 
The gold is similar to that of Little Minook Creek, mostly smooth 
and bright with a little that is rough. It is generally coarse and 
chunky, nuggets sometimes reaching 3 ounces in weight. The larger 
part of the gold is undoubtedly reconcentrated from the high bench 
of Minook Creek. The small amount of rough gold has probably had 
its origin in the bed rock. 
The gravels have been mined by drifting with steam points, but 
advantage was taken of the wet season of 1904 and some ground 
sluicing was done in gravel and muck 16 feet thick. Trees and brush 
in the lower part of the creek were cleared away in preparation for 
further ground sluicing. The cost of mining by drifting is 50 per 
cent or more of the output, but as there is so little water it has been 
the only feasible mode of work. The creek is considered to be nearly 
worked out. 
