BIND 
HESS 
2j. and ] rampart placer region. 109 
A most important feature of these valleys — one that forces itself 
.gain and again on the attention of the observer — is their unsymmet- 
ical character. The southeast side is, in most cases, an abrupt 
lescent of several hundred feet, unbroken by tributaries. The 
lorthwest slope extends very gradually upward, in some cases for a 
aile or more back from the stream, and then breaks oil' abruptly to 
orm the steep side of the neighboring valley. Its surface is worn by 
ributaries which have formed short valleys of their own, and these, 
n their backward extension, have in some cases broken the continuit} 7 
>f the main ridges. Benching has been an accompaniment of stream 
ievelopment, as on the northern side of the divide, and these gradual 
lopes have presented favorable conditions for the retention of the 
old-bearing gravels which have been deposited upon them. 
vegetation. 
The valleys and slopes of the larger streams and some of the 
enches are timbered with a light growth of small spruce and birch, 
here is some tamarack in the valleys. Grass grows luxuriantly on 
ortions of the high bench of the Minook Valley, and is abundant in 
ae small draws throughout most of the region. 
The Government has an agricultural experiment station across the 
iver from Rampart, and at Hot Springs, a localit}^ near the Tanana 
liver, where conditions are especially favorable for gardening, pri- 
ate parties have been for some time raising vegetables in large quan- 
ities and selling them to the miners. 
GEOLOGIC SKETCH. 
The geology of the region is complex. The rocks include several 
filiations which have been closely folded, metamorphosed, and 
ltrudcd by a variety of igneous rocks. They range in age from 
>evonian or older to the Quaternary. 
STRATIFIED ROCKS. 
The oldest rocks in the region are apparently the garnetif erous mica- 
uartz-schists and marbles. . These are found on Ruby Creek and the 
dge north of Ruby Creek, which forms the western boundary of the 
alley of Minook Creek. They occur also on Minook Creek below 
le Hopkins bridge. These schists were not observed in any other 
ortion of the region. They resemble those of the Fortymile and 
irch Creek regions. 
In the Yukon-Tanana country there are large areas of shales, cherts, 
Higlomerates, limestones, tuffs, and diabases, which occur in rather 
)nstant association at widely separated localities. These have been 
rouped by Kpurr into one formation and called the Rampart series. 61 
:Spurr, J. E., Geology of the Yukon gold district, Alaska: Eighteenth Ann. Kept. U. S. Geol. Sur- 
y, pt. 3, pp. 155-169. 
