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have produced more than $15,000. As the ground was 20 to 50 feet deep
and even 60 feet in places in the lower part, shaft sinking and draining of the
ground must have proved expensive, and it is doubtful whether the oper-
ations actually paid. The Ontario group of claims are said to have pro-
duced $54,000 in gold from the upper 500 feet of the channel. In the
lower part a short distance above the trail crossing there is said to be a fall
of 30 or 40 feet in the bedrock channel. On the Cora the pay is said to
have been found mainly on the benches. The bedrock in the deep channel
is reported to have been very irregular and rich spots were found only
in a few places. The most recent work on the creek is that by Jack Bell,
Bob Buchanan, and other local miners, who sank a shaft 41 feet deep on
the upper part of the Renfrew ground below the Cora in the hope of finding
a part of the channel that had not been mined, but without success. About
seventeen shafts and prospect pits were also sunk by Sandy McDonald on
the benches along the south side of the creek from the mouth up. They
are reported to have yielded good prospects, but not sufficient to pay for
drifting.

The ground on the creek is held under three leases by John Hopp,
who proposes to mine it on a large scale by hydraulicking. The total
length of the part of the creek that has been mined by drifting or the part
that is known to be gold-bearing is 9,500 feet. Throughout this distance,
measured in a direct line along the general course of the creek, the average
gradient of the present creek is 6-5 per cent and the average gradient of
the bedrock channel is about 6 per cent. There is thus a good grade for
hydraulicking. A sluice flume brought up from Williams creek on a 4 per
cent grade would reach bedrock ata point about 2,000 feet upstream
or about at the old Reid shaft. The deep ground at the mouth of the
creek, of course, cannot be reached by hydraulicking. If Williams creek
is to be dredged the dredging will have to be done and the town of Barker-
ville moved before hydraulicking of Conklin gulch is begun, because
hydraulicking would result in a much greater accumulation of tailings in
Williams creek than there is at present. The present tailings have been
derived from hydraulicking in Black Jack cut and in Stouts gulch and are
said to average 25 feet in thickness. The thickness in the part above the
mouth of Conklin gulch and below the Black Jack canyon, judging by old
photographs of the creek and its present appearance, must be nearly 50
feet. The amount of ground available in Conklin gulch for hydraulicking
and the average value per cubic yard cannot be determined, as no system-
atic testing of the ground by drilling has been done. The reasonable belief
that the ground will pay for hydraulicking is based on the results of the
shafts and test-pits put down by McDonald and on statements of the old
miners that there were many places, especially along the sides of the creek,
where gold values were found and the ground could not be mined by
drifting because of the pressure of water and slum. The amount of ground
will thus depend on how high up the sides of the valley the pay extends,
and this, as well as the average value of the ground, can probably be most
economically determined by systematic drilling. All the ground lies well
below the Stouts-Lowhee system of ditches, the water of which brought
around the head of or across Williams creek by means of a syphon, may
eventually be used for hydraulicking on Conklin. As an alternative, only