91

the mouth of Empire creek and at the mouth of Russian creek. Two
hydraulic plants were operated for one or two seasons on benches at the
mouth of Russian creek, but the operations did not pay. The gold was
fairly fine and not easily saved in hydraulicking and was confined to a
thin pay-streak in the surface gravels. Conditions were nearly similar
along the benches near Empire creek where, although good wages are
said to have been made by individual miners in the early days, attempts to
mine the thin pay-streak on a fairly large scale failed. None of the tribu-
tary creeks along this stretch of Antler creek proved gold-bearing except
near their mouths, and there the pay was in surface gravels on the benches
of Antler creek. The best values were apparently found in places where
the gravels overlay rough bedrock, and in a few places where the gravels
are underlain by boulder clay. There is little doubt, therefore, that the
gold was transported by ice or by streams from the upper parts of the
creek and was concentrated along the benches by stream erosion of the
drift. The chief interest in the creek at the present time is the prospective
value as dredging ground of the stretch for 1 or 2 miles downstream from
the canyon above the mouth of Grouse creek (See Figures 11 and 12).
Coarse gold is known to have been found on Guyet creek and on Grouse
creek, tributary to Antler creek near the upper end of the proposed dredg-
ing ground, and some coarse gold is said to have been found on Guyet
creek nearly down to Antler Creek flats. As the gold on the creek is prob-
ably transported gold it is possible that a pay-streak occurs in places on
bedrock, especially if, as seems probable, the deposits in the valley bottom
consist entirely of gravels, for fairly coarse gold would tend to work down
through the gravels and become concentrated on bedrock. On the other
hand, it may be overdeepened in places by ice erosion, and if so no very
rich pay-streak is likely to occur.

Guyet or Gold Run

Guyet (or Gold Run) channel (Figure 11) is on the southeast side of the
canyon of Antler creek, a short distance below the mouth of Quartz gulch.
An old stream channel, which has been exposed by hydraulicking, trends
southeast and has a comparatively low gradient. Its apparent continu-
ation is seen on the opposite side of Antler creek at the head of Guyet
creek. The part between has been destroyed by the cutting of the rock
canyon of Antler creek over 200 feet deep. The deposits filling the channel
in the hydraulic pit consist of a few feet of gravels at the bottom, overlain
by stratified glacial silt and clay about 50 feet thick, glacial sands and
gravels 45 feet thick, and 50 feet of boulder clay at the top, the total
thickness being about 160 feet.

Mining on a small scale near the mouth of the channel where it drops
off steeply into Antler Creek canyon was carried on for about sixteen years
prior to 1897 by a Frenchman named Guyet who also did considerable
mining on Guyet creek, which is apparently a continuation of the channel and
was named after him. In 1899 the claim was acquired by the Cariboo Con-
solidated Mining Company and prospecting of the ground was done under
the direction of Joseph Wendle, who later purchased the claim and holds