weconnett, } FINLAY RIVER. iNet

Deserters’ Caiion is situated about ninety miles above the mouth of
the Finlay River, and is the first interruption to its navigation. This
cafion is about half a mile long and in the narrowest places scarcely
exceeds a hundred feet in width. It is cut through hard conglomerate
and sandstone. The walls, except at the lower end, where there is a
steep conglomerate cliff, are not very high. The channel is crooked
and is interrupted by several bad riffles. Deserters’ Cafion can be
run at certain stages of water but its navigation is dangerous. A
good portage-track half a mile in length has been cut out by the In-
dians along the west bank.

Above Deserters’ Cafion, the Finlay makes a couple of great bends
to the west, above which it receives the A-ki-é River from the east. At
the bends high cut-banks of boulder-clay, silts and gravel, are exposed.
The white limestone mountains seen from Fort Grahame are now
directly west. This range commences west of the Caiion and extends
north-westward. It evidently, from its condition, marks a line of dis-
turbance and probably of faulting. The range immediately east of
the valley is still composed of gneiss and mica-schists, but farther
back, bare sharp crested mountains come into view, which are probably
built of limestone.

The Akie River has not been explored. It enters the Finlay in
two branches, the larger of which is one hundred feet wide; its valley
is wide and cuts straight back into the mountains for a distance of
about twelve miles; it then bends to the north, but sends a branch
southward. The wash in the bed of the Akie is principally limestone
and does not contain gold. Above the mouth of the Akie, the Finlay
pursues a very tortuous course as far as Paul’s Branch, a distance
measured in a straight line of about twenty-one miles, but following
the course of the river for thirty-five miles. In several points of this
reach, the river is bordered by high gravel and boulder-clay banks, in
some cases exceeding 250 feet in height. The valley maintains a
width of from five to six miles for part of the distance, but six miles
below Paul’s Branch, a range rises up west of the river which narrows
it in to about three miles. The ranges bordering the valley on both
sides have a height in this latitude of about 3000 feet above the
valley.

Paul’s Branch is a small stream about thirty feet in width. Its
valley is narrow and caiion-like where it breaks through the gneissic
range that borders the Rockies on the west, but widens out when it
reaches the softer rocks behind. No gold was found on Paul’s Branch,
but good prospects were obtained from a couple of streams which enter

9

a

Deserters’
Caiion.

White moun-
tains.

Akie River.

Paul’s Branch.