77

The rock bench in the pit is about 40 feet above the level of the creek and
slopes gently downstream. The deposits overlying the bedrock vary trom
4 to 5 feet at the outer edge of the bench to about 30 feet at the inner
end and consist of 4 to 10 feet of surface gravels underlain by boulder clay
and glacial gravels. The clay is red in some places and blue in other places
where it is compact and has not been oxidized by the ground waters. Hard
masses occasionally occur and numerous boulders are present which,
however, as a rule, are small enough to be handled by the derrick with
which the mine is equipped. Coarse gravels underlie the boulder clay in
places and rest on the bedrock which is mostly hard and uneven, but shows
no evidence of glaciation. The gold occurs in the surface gravels and
in the gravels that lie underneath the clay and rest on bedrock. Com-
paratively little seems to occur directly on or in the bedrock. Some
probably occurs in the gravels included in the clay or as pieces scattered
through the glacial clay. The gold is similar to what is usually described
by the miners as “flaxseed” gold. It is fairly fine and uniform in size,
but some large pieces occur. It is not what is usually described by the
miners as “‘lead”’ gold, which is well worn, but not pounded or flattened,
coarse gold mixed with fine. Many of the pieces are flattened and much
worn and there is considerable fine gold, but practically no flour or fine
scale gold, so that the gold is readily saved in a short length of sluice boxes.
There is some evidence that another rock bench occurs just above the
bench exposed in the pit and that it carries some gold, but sufficient work
has not been done to definitely determine this question. A tunnel run
into the bank about 250 feet down-stream from the lower end of the pit
and about 50 feet above the creek showed some gold. Another tunnel,
1,100 feet farther down, also showed some values in the bench deposits a
few feet above the creek level. It, therefore, seems probable that the
bench deposits continue for a considerable distance down-stream on the
right side. The work done in 1923 would indicate that the gold production
of the bench amounts to about $1,400 per 100 feet in length, but this amount
may be considerably increased if higher benches carrying gold are found.
Moreover, very much higher values amounting to nearly $2 a cubic yard
are reported! to have been obtained by the Sam Wah Company in hydrau-
licking in 1902 on the upstream continuation of the bench, so that it is
reasonable to suppose that rich spots also occur lower down. The difficulty
of estimating the value of a property of this character, even after consider-
able development and mining work has been done, is thus well illustrated.
The property has the advantages of good facilities for the disposal of tailings
and a fair water supply. Sufficient water for a No. 2 monitor with a
3-inch nozzle was available in 1923, the head being 132 feet. The ditch
is about 3$ miles long and consists of an upper part about 2 miles long
from which the water drops about 50 feet to the lower ditch 12 miles long.
Normally there is a large supply of water in Cunningham creek even in dry
seasons, but in August, 1923, the flow at the head of the ditch was insufficient
for hydraulicking. The ditch carries about 300 miner’s inches of water
and is of high gradient. A much larger supply of water can be made avail-
able by a good ditch.

1Ann. Rept., Minister of Mines, B.C., 1902, p. 95.
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