BONNIFIELD AND KANTISHNA REGIONS. 209 
the man, bill too little work has been done to give definite information 
regarding the average dimensions, values, or persistence of the pay 
streak. 
Mining is done by open cuts in combination with wing dams. The 
ground is for the most part free from frost, and the only trouble from 
this source has been experienced in constructing bed-rock drains. 
Wing dams are used to deflect the water from the ground that is being 
worked, and water for sluicing is carried from the dam a distance of a 
few hundred feet to the sluice boxes. These are given a grade prefer- 
ably of 9 inches to the box. There is but little sediment in the gravels 
and no dump boxes are used. 
The timber available for sluice-box lumber in this part of the valley 
is Limited, and lumber is packed 5 to 25 miles from the lower canyon 
in the winter. About a dozen men were working on the creek during 
the summer of 1906. 
HOMESTAKE CREEK. 
Homestake Creek is a small stream, about 4 miles long, which enters 
Totatlanika Creek in the uppermost canyon. The valley consists of two 
parts of different character. The upper part is open and flat — hardly 
more than a depression in an undulating, well-nigh timberless area 
several miles wide — that extends east and west between the ridges. 
The lower part is a deep canyon with vertical walls of andesite that 
crowd the stream to a narrow, crooked course and burden it with 
great fragments. The grade of the upper valley is approximately 100 
feet to the mile; that through the canyon is over 200 feet to the mile. 
The amount of water carried by the stream is, during a dry season, 
insufficient for mining purposes. The bed rock of the upper valley is 
composed of unconsolidated clay and sand of the coal-bearing forma- 
tion; that of the lower valley is the igneous rock of the canyon. 
Most of the mining has been done at the upper end of the canyon 
and in the open part of the valley half a mile farther upstream. The 
deposits that are worked range from 2 to 6 feet thick. Gold, has been 
found in 2 to 3 feet of gravel, and part of it is coarser than that of 
Totatlanika Creek, one piece worth $15 having been found. All of 
the gold apparently is well worn. The stream heads in gravels and 
above the canyon has not yet cut down to hard bed rock, and it would 
seem that the gold has been derived from the gravels. 
There are but few trees in the upper valley. Sluice-box lumber and 
even firewood are packed from the main stream. Some of the ground 
prospects well, but so little work had been done that the possibilities 
of the creek were not definitely known. Unlike those on the main 
stream, successful operations on Homestake Creek are dependent on 
abundant rainfall. 
Bull. 314—07 14 
