PRINDI-E AND 
HESS. 
RAMPART PLACER REGION. 119 
siderable work was done during the winter of 1903-4 and the summer 
of 1904 with good results. The depth to bed rock varies from 6 to L8 
feet and there is from 1 to 9 feet of gravel, which is made up of sub- 
angular fragments of quartzite, schistose grit, vein quartz, slate, and 
some intrusives. The presence of much clay causes difficulty in work- 
ing the gravels. Pay is found in from 1^ to 7 feet of gravel and over 
a width of 10 to 15 feet. The gold includes both smooth and rough 
varieties, and some fine nuggets combined with quartz have been found. 
The creek is worked by drifting and open cuts. 
Most of the gold of Omega and Thanksgiving creeks does not seem 
to have been derived from bench gravels, but rather to be the result 
of the first concentration of the gold after it has left the bed rock by 
the action of the present streams. There are many small quartz seams 
in the schistose carbonaceous grits and some of these are probably the 
source of the gold. 
The gold of the southern area is of much lower value than that of 
Little Minook Creek and brings only from $15 to $10 an ounce. The 
total production of the area for the past } r ear has probably been over 
$150,000. 
SUMMARY. 
General outlook. — The older creeks, although largely worked out, 
are still producing some gold, and attention is being directed to known 
deposits less advantageousl} T located, some of which can probably be 
made to pay by the use of carefully considered methods, and to new 
ground, the extent of which has not yet been determined, where good 
pay has been discovered. The methods employed in the extraction of 
the gold are open cut combined with ground sluicing and shoveling in, 
drifting by the use of steam points, and hydraulicking. The cost of 
production has varied from 25 to 50 per cent of the output, and is 
probably most often very near the higher percentage named. 
Outlook for hydraulic mining. — The installation of a hydraulic plant 
in any of the placer regions of the Yukon-Tanana country involves the 
expenditure of an amount of money several times in excess of that 
required for similar work in the States and should be preceded by much 
careful preliminary stud} 7 of all the conditions. The transformation of 
an available water supply into a powerful tool of excavation and trans- 
portation and the use of this tool in the most skillful and efficient 
manner are among the most important problems of mining. Lack of 
knowledge and skill may be covered by the results where the ground 
is very rich, but with ground like that under consideration the posses- 
sion of these qualities or the lack of them may make all the difference 
between success and failure. Directors and stockholders of companies 
planning such work should insist upon and be constantly ready to bear 
the expense of the intelligent study of conditions and careful manage- 
ment of operations. 
