eC

125

the lower part of Williams creek above the Meadows showed that there
is an interglacial pay-streak about 60 feet from the surface. The drain
tunnel for the Gold Fields elevator, on Williams creek at the entrance to
the Meadows’, is said to have followed this pay-streak for some distance.
The pay dirt excavated in running the tunnel was brought to the surface
in a shaft 60 feet deep located about 1,000 feet below the elevator and is
said to have averaged nearly a dollar a yard. This pay-streak may con-
tinue beneath the surface for some distance down the Meadows. The
only facts bearing on the question whether there is a rich pay-streak in
the deep channel of the Meadows are that the pay in the deep channel of
Williams creek where it enters the Meadows is known, from the record
of mining the channel in the early days, to have been not nearly so rich as
in the narrower parts higher up—partly because the pay was distributed
over a much wider area—and that the deep channels mined at Willow
River and at Slough Creek mines did not prove very rich. If the channel
has a very low gradient it is reasonable to suppose that the pay-streak would
be wide, as was found to be the case on Lightning creek at the La Fontaine
mine where it was so wide, and, therefore, relatively lean, that it did not
pay to mine. The average bedrock gradient of the deep channel from the
mouth of Mosquito creek to the head of the Meadows is practically the
same as the surface gradient or about 0-6 per cent, if the elevations of the
bedrock in the channel at the two places are alone considered. It is
probable, however, that the deep channel turns down Slough Creek valley
at Jack of Clubs lake and that the ground at the Lane and Kurtz shaft is
150 feet or more in depth which, if so, would give a gradient, for the part
above, of at least 1-2 per cent, but such a gradient is not very high. There
are also theoretical considerations which, as already pointed out, dis-
courage the view that any very rich pay-streak occurs in the deep channel
of the Meadows, because of the effects of glaciation, but the question is
an open one and can probably be decided only by borings.

Eightmile Lake

Hightmile lake (Figure 20) is about 7 miles north of Barkerville and
is reached by wagon road down Williams creek and up Downey Pass creek,
or by the Bear Lake road to Pine creek and thence by foot trail (formerly a
wagon road) to the lake. The lake lies near the summit of a broad, drift-
filled valley which extends northwest and is drained by Valley creek.
The lake itself drains to the east by a short stream flowing into Summit
creek, which, a short distance lower down, flows in a deep valley cut
through the high range of hills, trending northwest. Slide mountain,
6,350 feet high, is on one side of the valley and the Two Sisters, nearly
7,000 feet high, on the northwest side. The lake has an elevation of 3,981
feet. ‘There is thus very considerable relief in the area to the east of the
lake. The area in the vicinity of the lake, and between it and Pine and
Shepherd creeks, has a relief of only 200 to 300 feet, but the surface is very
uneven because of the irregular deposition of glacial drift, and very few

1 Geol. Surv., Canada, Sum. Rept., 1921, pt. A, Map 1942,
20285—9