94 FAIRBANKS AND RAMPART QUADRANGLES. 
reasonable cost. But, as has been said, the creeks of the region are 
small and furnish hardly enough water for ordinary sluicing oper- 
ations. 
Miners say that Hutlina Creek would furnish plenty of water for 
hydraulicking, but the distance it would have to be carried is variously 
estimated at 8 to 15 miles. Were water brought from this creek it 
would have to be piped through a large part of the distance to retain 
the head. In 'connection with hydraulic mining in this region the 
writer can do no better than quote the remarks of L. M. Prindle " 
upon the subject: 
Outlook- for hydraulic mining. — The installation of a hydraulic plant in any of 
the placer regions of the Yukon-Tanana country involves the expenditure of an 
amount of money several times in excess of that required for similar work in 
the States and should be preceded by much careful preliminary study of all the 
conditions. The transformation of available water supply into a powerful tool 
of excavation and transportation and the use of this tool in the most skillful 
and efficient manner are among the most important problems of mining. Lack 
of knowledge and skill may be covered by the results where the ground is very 
rich, but with ground like that under consideration the possession of these 
qualities or the lack of them may make all the difference between success and 
failure. Directors and stockholders of companies planning such work should 
insist upon and be constantly ready to bear the expense of the intelligent study 
of conditions and careful management -of operations. 
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 
The rocks of the Baker Creek area are interbedded schistose 
grits, slates, and quartzites, with the grits forming the larger part. 
The grits and slates are often carbonaceous. Igneous rocks were 
found only along the crest of the dhdde, and not in large quantity. 
When compared with the Klondike or the Nome gold-producing 
regions, the small amount of metamorphism and mineralization and 
(lie scarcity of quartz veins and stringers are very noticeable. 
The source of the gold is probably local, and the richer placers are 
generally in the vicinity of carbonaceous phases of the rocks. There 
is frequently reconcentration from older gravels where the streams cut 
across gravel-covered benches and hillsides. The gold, though gen- 
erally close to bed rock, is sometimes distributed through a consid- 
erable thickness of gravel and muck. It often occurs in small crys- 
tals, and is thus shotty and chunky and easy to save. Large nuggets 
are rare. It contains a large amount of silver, so that its value per 
ounce is much lower than that of the gold of the Minook Creek area. 
running from $14.88 to a little over $16. There are few minerals 
accompanying the gold, a little pyrite, magnetite, and hematite being 
the only ones noticed. 
" Prindle, L. M., and Hess, F. L., The Rampart placer region, in Report on progress of 
investigations of mineral resources of Alaska : Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 250, 1905, 
pp. 104-119. 
