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valleys. Glacial erosion of the bedrock has not been very extensive, for
the glacial drift averages less than 100 feet in thickness over the whole area,
and it is evident from the topography that the main stream valleys existed
before the Glacial period. It is fairly certain that concentrations of gold
derived from the wearing away of great thicknesses of bedrock occurred
in these old valleys and that the gold in the present valleys was partly
derived by erosion of the old pay-streaks and concentration into new pay-
streaks, and that in places the old pay-streaks remained intact in the valley
bottoms in spite of glacial erosion and deposition. Another theory, which
seeks to account for greater richness of the northward-flowing streams,
was suggested to the present writer by William Brown of Jack of Clubs
creek and appears to have considerable merit. The theory is that because
the rocks of the area dip, as a rule, northeast and north, their edges do
not form good riffles for catching and holding the gold on the south and
southward-flowing creeks, and, therefore, the gold tends to work down the
creeks, and that because of the structural features of the bedrock, the
streams in cutting down their valleys have tended to shift towards the
north and northeast. On Lightning creek the gold-bearing rock benches
are all on the south side except at one or two places in the upper part of
the creek. This shows that the stream has shifted to the north and that
the tributary streams on the south side have been enriched by cutting
through the benches.

The location of the old claims on Lightning creek down as far as
Jawbone creek, and the depths of many of the shafts are shown on Bow-
man’s map of Lightning creek! and in part on a map published in the
Annual Report of the Minister of Mines, B.C., 1876. Some of the more
famous of the claims, which, however, were not the original 100-foot
claims but Company claims, were the Lightning in the bed of the creek
just above the Spruce canyon, the south Wales and the Spruce, covering
the buried channel opposite the canyon, the Point claim covering the
buried channel under the hill opposite the lower part of Van Winkle creek,
and lower down the Van Winkle, Victoria, Vancouver, and Vulcan, the
latter covering the ground just above Stanley, and part of lower Chisholm
creek.

Mining on upper Lightning creek during the past few years has been
done only by a few miners working individually; the last important work
was that by L. A. Bonner in 1919. George Murdock, who came to Cariboo
in 1864, holds two hydraulic claims, one on the south side of the creek nearly
opposite the lower end of Dunbar flat and the other high up on the hill-side
in the forks between Houseman creek and Lightning, but has only a small
supply of water for working the lower claim on the old Perseverance ground
where there is a high bank of boulder clay and gravels overlying
bedrock benches. It is several years since the upper claim was worked, but
it is said to have some merit. Its altitude, however, makes it diffienlt
to obtain an adequate supply of water. Most of the water on upper
Lightning Creek has been held by the Lightning Creek Hydraulic Mining
Company. Ground-sluicing at the upper end of Spruce canyon has been
carried on by Harry Eden, and one-quarter mile farther upstream, by

1Geol. Surv., Canada, Ann. Rept., vol. III, Map 365 (1895).