112 ALASKAN MINERAL RESOURCES IN 1904. [bull. 259. 
Ground was being worked on a few of the claims during the past 
summer by both the open-cut method and steam points. Much work 
has been done in the past; some of the ground has been u gophered" 
considerably, and although there is still good ground, the condition in 
which it has been left has often increased the expense of working it. 
11 until' Creek, — Hunter Creek is similar in character to Little 
Minook Creek. The maximum depth to bed rock, so far as observed, 
is about 40 feet. The thickness of the gravel is about the same — 12 
feet — as on Little Minook, and the proportion of bowlders is greater. 
The gold is finer, and some of it is rough. Barite is often associated 
with the gold. As far as could be learned, gold is not found in paying 
quantities above the eastern limit of the high bench gravels. Decom- 
posed tuffs and loosely consolidated shales and sandstones containing 
plant remains form the bed rock in the lower portion of the valley, and 
this soft bed rock may easily be mistaken by the miner for stream 
deposits associated with gravels. The stream gravels lie above these, 
not below them, and the mere fact that they are soft does not prove 
that they belong to the stream deposits, as do the muck and sandy 
layers that are frequently found above the gravels. The miner mayj 
often save much time and labor by studying carefully the character of 
the bed rock, wherever it is exposed on the sides or bottom of the val- 
ley, and comparing it with the material found by him in the ground 
which is being worked. 
Considerable work was being done on Hunter Creek. One of the 
most interesting developments has been the introduction of a h} T draulic 
plant. A ditch about a mile long carries 300 miner's inches of water 
to the ground and gives a head of 75 feet. The ground is worked by 
what might be termed fractional ground sluicing. The thawed surface 
layer is ground-sluiced to the frozen surface, and this left a week oi? 
more to thaw, when another layer, from 1 to 2 feet in thickness, may 
be ground-sluiced away. This method is said to effect results quickly 
and very satisfactorily. On another portion of the creek a flume 
2,000 feet long has been constructed, and this brings water to a low 
bench only about 16 feet above the creek. The gravel is ground- 
sluiced away and about \\ feet of bed rock shoveled in. 
Little Minook, Jr., Creek. — Little Minook, Jr., is a small creek, only 
about 2 miles long. The narrow valley of the lower portion opens out 
above to a broadly V-shaped depression in the high bench. There i 
about 12 feet of muck on the 4 to 5 feet of gravel. Pay is said 
have been found over a width of 60 feet. Much of the ground has 
been worked out. 
Hoosier Creek. — Hoosier Creek heads far back toward Wolverine 
Mountain and flows northwestward through a deep, narrow canyon. Its 
general characters are the same as those of Little Minook Creek. 
The grade is about 80 feet to the mile in the lower portion of the 
