62

water discouraged prospecting. It was not until 1898 that a determined
effort was made to test the value of the deep ground. In this year the
Bradford, Yukon, and Cariboo Gold Fields, Limited, did some tunnelling
and shaft sinking. In the following year their property was taken over by
the Cariboo Deeps, Limited, a syndicate of which Mr. H. E. C. Carry was
manager, and further prospecting was carried on. In 1900 it was reported?
that a channel lower than that of the present stream and a large body of
pay gravel had been found. In 1906 an hydraulic plant was installed by
B. A. Lasell, who had acquired the property, and water was brought on
the ground by a ditch from Victoria creek. Hydraulicking was carried on
each season while the water lasted, until 1913. The work is said to have
paid more than expenses in some years. The hydraulic pit was extended
upstream about one-quarter of a mile and in the upper part was found a
deep, narrow bedrock channel running along the right side and buried
beneath 50 to 100 feet of glacial clay, slum, and gravels. It was stated by
Joseph House, who did the last work on the property, that when a part of
this deep channel was cleaned out it was found to contain very little gold.
Most of the gold was found on a rock bench on the left side which had been
followed up in the hydraulicking. Apparently the narrow rock channel
had been cut down to one side of the pay-streak in the valley bottom and
was, therefore, nearly barren of gold. The bedrock on the bench shows no
evidence of ice erosion and is considerably weathered and creviced. At
the head of the pit there is a considerable body of glacial clay and stratified
glacial silt, and, as the gradient in the upper part of the creek is low and the
area too high to obtain a really efficient water supply, further hydraulicking
is rendered difficult. A deep shaft was sunk on the flat above the hydraulic
pit near the summit to determine whether the deep ground would pay to
drift, but whether the bedrock channel was reached is not certain. AI-
though the bedrock exposed in the workings shows no evidence of glacial
erosion, and the presence of the narrow bedrock valley—evidently formed by
stream erosion before the deposition of the glacial drift filling it—indicates
that glacial erosion in the valley was not pronounced, yet the thick body
of glacial drift shows that an ice-sheet once covered the valley and prob-
ably had some effect in removing or scattering the pay gravels of the
ancient stream. The high altitude of the valley and its relation to the
surrounding higher areas, show that it was not glaciated by a valley glacier,
but was covered by an ice-sheet which must have been of wide extent.
Theoretically, therefore, it might be concluded that the valley is more
likely to contain pay gravels on bedrock than the upper parts of many of
the creeks. Whether the gravel would pay to work could only be deter-
mined by prospecting and development work. The mining work so far
done, however, does not encourage the view that a very rich pay-streak
exists.

Wolfe (China) Creek

Wolfe creek, better known in recent years as China creek, flows north-
west into Upper Antler, the main branch heading in the high channel
parallel to and west of Antler creek.

~ 1Amn, Rept., Minister of Mines, B.C., 1900, p. 734,