PLACERS OF THE RAMPART REGION. 81 
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 all 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 in diameter. A 
handful of garnets was obtained from a pan of dirt. There are so 
many of them that they give considerable trouble by filling up the 
spaces in the riffles and must be cleaned out once or twice a day. Some 
barite is said to be present, and an occasional silver nugget appears, 
one weighing 2 ounces having been reported. The silver nuggets are 
very rough. 
It seems likely that the origin of the gold is in the local bed rock, 
which along this part of the creek is a carbonaceous slate of irregular 
cleavage. In places much pyrite is distributed through it. The creek 
has been worked during the summer by open cuts and in winter by 
drifting, but it has probably paid little, if anything, more than wages. 
Preparations were being made to install a hydraulic plant, and a mile 
of steel pipe, consisting of 720 feet each of 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, and 
14 inch pipe with branches of 11 -inch pipe for an elevator, and 7-inch 
pipe for a giant, was to be put in. It was said that it would deliver 
the water under a head of 154 feet. 
SLATE CREEK. 
Slate Creek, a western tributary of Minook Creek, about 12 miles 
from Yukon River, is about 4 miles long and is said to always carry 
at least a sluice head of water. It has a grade in the lower portion of 
about 150 feet to the mile, and the valley is narrowly V-shaped. 
The creek has been worked only since 1902. Freights from Ram- 
part are 8 cents per pound in summer and 4 cents per pound in winter. 
The bed rock in the lower part is much-folded shaly limestone, 
green and purple slates, and cherty beds, with a northeast strike. The 
main rock of the valley is a dark carbonaceous schist which breaks 
into pencil-like fragments and contains many quartz seams. Most 
of the work has been done nearly 2 miles above the mouth by drifting 
in the winter. The deposits here are ?6 feet thick. 
24304— Bull. 337—08 6 
