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the glacial drainage. The placer gold was probably concentrated in pay-
streaks on the benches in pre-Glacial time; it was later mixed with the
glacial drift and was reconcentrated by stream erosion of the drift. A
part, also, was probably transported along with the glacial outwash gravels.
The significance of these partly hypothetical considerations is that the gold
is likely to occur in paying quantities only in places where gravels extend
down to a false or the true bedrock. Some gold may occur in the gravels
between the two boulder-clay sheets, but where clay rests on bedrock there
is likely to be little or no gold beneath the clay. The gold is probably
very unevenly distributed over the benches, but there is no reason why
pay-streaks should not occur in places near the inner edge of the benches
as well as along the central part. There is a considerable area of the
benches, especially in the upper part (See Figure 22), that has not been
mined, and it is probable that further hydraulic operations can be made
to pay if the water from both Devils canyon and from the west were made
available at one point.

The Slough Creek benches appear to extend only a short distance
beyond the mouth of Nelson creek. The sides of the valley below Nelson
creek, however, are so deeply drift covered that it is impossible to tell just
how far the benches extend. An attempt to hydraulic a bench of Slough
creek a short distance below the mouth of Nelson creek (Figure 23) was
made by the Cariboo Exploration Company when operations were being
carried on at the Slough Creek mine, 8. Medlicott being the manager.
Water was brought from New creek by a ditch 14 miles long. One 44-inch
monitor under a head of about 300 feet was used. The bedrock was reached
and proved to be fairly flat and at nearly the same level as one of the benches
on the east side of Nelson creek. Some gold was recovered, but the water
supply was small and work was carried on for only one season (1899).
The deposits overlying the bedrock have a thickness of 20 to 50 feet and
consist mostly of glacial silt and clay. There is said to be a small thickness
of gravels beneath the clay, but these are not exposed. It is possible that
the rock bench extends for some distance downstream, but, judging by the
steep slope of the valley side above, it does not seem probable that higher
benches corresponding to those on the east side of Nelson creek occur.

Dragon Creek

Dragon creek (Figure 25), named after a French Canadian (a Mr.
Bourassa) who, because of his great strength and fighting abilities was
nicknamed “Dragon,” flows into Willow river on the south side, and is
reached by a road 4 miles long which leaves the main highway at Devils
Lake creek. The road ends at the east bank of the hydraulic pit on the
creek and an aerial tramway is used for transport to the west side. Only
the middle part of the creek, from a point about one-half mile above the
junction with Willow river up to the dam, is shown on Figure 25. The
lower part for nearly three-quarters of a mile up from the mouth has a low
gradient and is in the broad, deeply drift-filled valley of Willow river.
Above this broad part the creek flows for 400 feet through a narrow rock
canyon on the east side of which is an old buried channel of Dragon creek,