?RINDLK AND 
HESS. 
RAMPART PLACER REGION. 107 
lifferent times by the several parties from the Geological Survey, and 
while based largely on foot traverses represents the drainage systems 
with comparative accuracy. 
YUKON DRAINAGE. 
The most important streams north of the divide are Minook and 
rroublesome creeks. Minook Creek is the largest stream in the 
Rampart region. It is about 25 miles long and flows through a nar- 
row valley in a nearly straight course, almost directly northward, to 
±e Yukon River. The grade in the lower portion of the valley is 
probably less than 50 feet to the mile. The stream is general^ con- 
ined in one channel, but in portions of the valley is distributed over 
i flat several hundred feet wide. At times of low water the stream is 
shallow, easily fordable on foot, and the bars are traveled by pack 
Trains; at high water it is impassable. 
The western side of the valley is a steep slope which rises to the 
leight of 1,000 feet or more above the stream. In the upper por- 
tion of the valley steep ridges crowd in closely on either side. On 
;he east these crowded ridges gradually give place northward to 
country of different character, which is related to the stream 
evelopment of the region and has an economic interest. Minook 
Jreek, for a portion of its length, flows inconspicuously in a narrow 
anyon 20 feet below the level of a bench that slopes gradually 
jpward to the base of the ridges on either side. This bench attains a 
maximum width of only a few hundred feet, and though it is appar- 
ntly the bottom of the valley it is in reality an old floor in which the 
)resent shallow camion has been cut. This old floor, which is so 
losely related to the development of the stream 20 feet below it, is of 
mportance in that it exemplifies on a small scale the results of a 
yrocess which, operating for a long time under different conditions 
han the present, has produced the bench that is so prominent east 
>f the valley. The "high bench "as it is locally called, with its 
teep stream ward- facing slope, bounds the lower half of the valley, 
nd its surface, 500 feet or more above the stream, rises gradually 
oward the base of the hills to the east and widens northward to a 
naximum width of about 3 miles. 
This bench with its gold-bearing gravels has long attracted the 
ttention of miners, and while this is not the place for a detailed 
tistory of stream development it is interesting to note the fact that 
he high bench stands probably in the same relation to Minook Creek 
s the small local bench above described does to the stream which has 
ut below it. It is only a more prominent result of processes which 
re still at work, which have left other less prominent benches at 
ower levels, and which have brought about those results at different 
