CIKCLE PRECINCT. 195 
HARRISON CREEK. 
Gold was found on Squaw Gulch, a tributary of Harrison Creek, 
is early as 1894, and considerable work was done on the main stream 
ip to 1896. As no high values were found, Harrison Creek was 
aearly abandoned for the richer placers which promised better 
returns. It is only within the last two years that the problem of 
working these relatively low grade deposits has been serioush 
3onsidered. 
The creek has two forks called North and South, on both of which 
^old has been found, but only the former is now being developed. 
Dne of the first discoveries of gold in the basin was at Pitkas Bar, at 
bhe junction of the two forks. 
The writer visited only the upper 4 miles of North Fork. Here the 
valley floor is 200 to 300 yards wide, with flat bottom and steep slope 
3n the south side. On the north the valley rises more gently and is 
deeply covered with talus. There are no excavations in this slope, 
and while no topographic evidence of benches was noted, it seems 
not impossible that they may exist beneath the slide material. Farther 
downstream the valley gradually contracts and is said to narrow 
down to a steep- walled canyon before it joins South Fork. The 
v r alley of South Fork is somewhat broader and appears to be more 
symmetrical. From the junction of the forks the valley continues to 
broaden until it merges with the Birch Creek valley 12 miles below. 
The bed rock on North Fork is probably chiefly quartz-mica schist, 
but the occurrence of some granite pebbles in the alluvium indicates 
the presence of that rock within the basin. The writer saw very few 
bed-rock exposures, but the character of the alluvium indicates that 
the schists are cut by numerous quartz veins, many of which are 
stained with iron, indicating mineralization. A slab of schist cut by 
a gold-bearing quartz vein found near the forks has already been 
described. 
Just above the canyon the bed rock is said to be 20 feet below the 
surface. From 6 to 7 miles above, near Discovery claim, the writer 
observed a depth of 8 to 9 feet to bed rock on the north side of the 
valley and near the center, but only 3 or 4 feet near the south wall. 
A mile or more upstream the bed rock was found to be 8 to 12 feet 
below the alluvial floor. In this part of the valley the grade of the 
stream is probably about 75 to 100 feet to the mile, and that of the 
bed-rock floor is approximately the same. Although no accurate 
data are available, the reconnaissance maps indicate about the same 
grade throughout this basin. Naturally the grade decreases near the 
mouth and in the canyon it is probably much steeper. 
" Spurr, J. E., Geology of the Yukon gold district, Alaska: Eighteenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Sur- 
vey, pt. 3, 1898, pp. 353-354. 
