on the Peacock lease to support a more expensive method of
working. The excavating is done by a 7/8-yard drag-line shov-
el. The gravel is dumped into the hopper of a moveable sluice-
box built on skids. Any tailings that accumulate at the end
of the sluice-box are. stacked by a bull-dozer. In order to
work in a dry pit below creek-level it was necessary to build
an enclosed box-drain southward from the north end of the Pea-
cock lease. The excavation is made by the drag-line, and the
cribbed-drain is built on the bedded clay and lagged on top.
The excavation at the down-stream end of the sluice-box then
fills with the tailings from the sluice which rests on top of
the box-drain. When the shovel has completed digging a pit
and the bed-rock has been cleaned, the drain is built ahead,
lagged over, and the sluice-box skidded forward on top of it.
It is possible, by diverting the creek around the excavation,
to work 20 to 25 feet below creek-level in a comparatively
dry pit. Large boulders in the gravel impede digging opera~
tions and increase costs by the time lost and the expense of
blasting them. Provided drainage can be maintained, and pro-
vided the depth of gravel does not become too great, nor the
gold content of the gravel too low, this method of operation
is suitable for working Wheaton Creek.

Alice Shea Creek flows over only a few feet of gravel on
a steep grade. Any large boulders are dragged to the sides
by a 5-ton winch operated by a small gasoline engine. The
creek during most of the summer is small enough to be carried
in a 12-inch sluice-box. Consequently, a small sod dam is
built, the creek diverted through the string of sluice-boxes
and the gravel shovelled from bed-rock by hand. Bed-rock is
Carefully cleaned to avoid missing any coarse gold that may
be lodged in the cracks.

PROSPECTING POSSIBILITIES

Hitherto lode prospecting in Wheaton (Boulder) Creek
area has not resulted in the discovery of any auriferous veins
even though the coarseness of the placer-gold suggests that it
is close to its source. The presumably separate sources for
the gold on Wheaton and Alice Shea Creeks should materially
reduce the area worth prospecting. The evidence suggests that
much of the gold came from auriferous quartz veins in the slate
and sedimentary rocks but search for mineralized zones or
veins in serpentine should not be completely overlooked.

The gold on Alice Shea Creek is exceedingly coarse and
extends to the head of the creek. It is evidently close to
its source, presumably veins in slate. On Alice Shea Creek,
however, some of the gold at least, appears to have come from

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