65

work was done in the early days and there are no good records of it. The
gold in all the workings seems, for the most part, to have been on or near
the true bedrock, but in some of the higher workings on Stevens creek a
part of the gold was on the clay which served as a false bedrock on which
the gold derived from erosion of the glacial drift has been concentrated by
recent stream action. A theory held for many years by some of the
prospectors was that buried channels, graded to the level of Antler creek,
occur near the mouths of Stevens and Beggs gulches, because the present
channels are in rock, have very high gradients, and are not graded to the
bottom of Antler creek. There are, however, sufficient rock outcrops along
the west side of Antler valley (See Figure 3), to show that the existence of
buried channels is doubtful, and there is also some evidence to show that
the valleys are true hanging valleys with respect to Antler creek. It is
evident from an inspection of the map and is obvious to one standing on the
ground in the upper part of Beggs or Stevens creek above an elevation of
4,400 feet, that the valleys trend southeast in the direction of Cunningham
pass. The lower steep parts bend towards the north down Antler creek.
This indicates that the ancient drainage of this part of the area was down
Cunningham creek, and that part of the drainage has been captured and
reversed in the direction of flow by the cutting of the Antler gorge from
Grouse creek up to Cunningham pass; and the hanging valleys are due to
the more rapid cutting down of the main valley than of the tributary
stream valleys. The Antler gorge is not post-Glacial, because glacial drift
occurs in the bottom of it in places. It is probably partly Glacial and
partly pre-Glacial in age. The narrowness of the gorge shows that it was
formed mostly by stream erosion and not by glacial ice erosion, although
the upper part was probably overdeepened by ice erosion. The narrowness
of the gorge near the mouth of Beggs gulch and its greater width higher
up near Cunningham also suggests that the old drainage was down Cunning-
ham valley. It, therefore, seems reasonable to suppose that Antler creek
above Wolfe creek, as well as Stevens and Beggs gulches and a stream
that once flowed along Antler valley below Cunningham pass in the opposite
direction to the present stream, formerly drained down Cunningham
valley. Since that time parts of the valleys have been cut down 300 to 400
feet and great changes in the shapes of the valleys have taken place not
only by stream erosion but by glacial erosion and deposition. One of the
later changes in the drainage—not post-Glacial, however—has been the
diversion of the flow of Antler from the pass known as Whiskey flat, to
the present valley of the creek.

This largely theoretical discussion of the ancient drainage of Upper
Antler valley has comparatively little significance regarding the occurrence
of placer deposits, except to indicate that Beggs and Stevens gulches,
as well as California and Wolfe creeks, occupy true hanging valleys in their
lower parts and, therefore, that buried valleys graded to the bottom of
Antler creek probably do not occur. It also suggests that bench deposits
may occur along the east side and 300 to 400 feet above Antler creek between
Cunningham pass and a point opposite the mouth of Beggs gulch. Some
hydraulicking was done about 1897 near this height on Meyers creek oppos-
ite Beggs gulch and a ditch extended from the next creek above, but
apparently the work did not pay. That part of the bench above the