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direction down Pleasant valley to Antler creek. These changes in drainage
however, have comparatively little significance regarding the occurrence
of placer gold deposits, for the valleys, in spite of the changes in direction
of drainage, have, for the most part, merely been widened and deepened
and the gold is mostly local in origin and has not travelled far downstream.
Of far greater importance are the effects of glacial erosion in the valleys.
The bedrock valley of Lowhee creek at its mouth is hanging with respect
to the main valley, as are also some of the tributary valleys above and
below Jack of Clubs lake. This fact suggests overdeepening of the main
valley by ice erosion. On the other hand, Mosquito creek appears to be
graded to the deep valley of Willow river, and Williams creek, where it
enters the Meadows, is graded to the deep channel beneath the upper
part of the Meadows. The evidence as to glacial erosion is thus conflicting.
It may be that ice erosion widened and deepened the main valleys in places
or even throughout the greater part, and that later, during a temporary
absence of the ice, some of the tributary streams deepened their channels
and became graded to the bottom of the main valley, whereas other
streams did not. Williams creek has two deep valleys in its lower part
near the Meadows, one through the Forest Rose ground being about 50
feet higher than the bottom of the main valley, which is graded to the
deep channel of the meadows. On the other hand Eureka and McArthur
gulches, short streams flowing into the meadows from the northeast face of
Barkerville mountain, are not graded to the deep channel of the Meadows.
The channels of these streams possibly illustrate the processes of erosion
as stated above. The deep channel of Williams creek, however, appears
to be very old, for it contains two series of glacial deposits with an inter-
glacial pay-streak between them, as well as the rich pay-streak on bedrock
now mined out. It is difficult to conceive how after a first advance and
retreat of the ice, the glacial drift could have been eroded and the tribu-
tary streams have cut deep valleys into the bedrock at such low levels.
It may be that glacial erosion widened and deepened the main valleys only
in places, as near Jack of Clubs lake, but—and this is the important point
regarding the occurrence of placer gold—it is fairly certain that glacial
erosion in the wide and deep main valleys was sufficiently great to have
removed any preglacial pay-streaks. The pay-streaks that remain must,
therefore, be glacial or interglacial in age. The surface or postglacial
pay-streak is only slightly developed and is not of importance, for although
the flat surface has been formed by alternate erosion and deposition by the
present stream, there has not been sufficient erosion to effect much con-
centration of the gold scattered through the drift or transported from the
upper part of the stream.

The question whether a rich pay-streak occurs in the deep channel of
the Meadows has never been definitely settled, in spite of considerable
prospecting and mining development work. In 1870 the Lane and Kurtz
Mining Company secured a lease of 5 miles of the Meadows and attempted
to mine the deep channel by drifting from a shaft. The shaft is located
on the south bank at the narrowest part of the Meadows, near where the
Downey Pass road leaves the main highway. The collar of the shaft was
about 15 feet above the level of the creek. According to Mr. C. C. Lane,
superintendent of the Lane and Kurtz Mining Company, as stated in a