98

near the surface on both sides of it. The deep channel probably lies
on the east side and since it could not be reached with the tunnel except by
cutting through the bedrock and extending the tunnel a considerable distance
upstream the work was abandoned. Four hundred feet below Brown’s tunnel
there is an old shaft which may be over the channel and from which some
drifting was done. At the bend in the stream 700 feet lower down, where
a small tributary comes in from the east, there is another tunnel—the
Clarke—which was run at about the same time as the American tunnel and
is said to be about 500 feet long. The Pinkerton tunnel near the mouth
of the creek is 400 or 500 feet long and is mostly near the surface and on
bedrock. Scattered pieces of gold are said to have been obtained in running
it, but no regular pay-streak was found. A shaft 500 feet west of the mouth
of the Pinkerton tunnel was sunk by Joseph Wendle and Wm. Shilling
about 1912. It was sunk 33 feet to water-level, but not to bedrock, and
Mr. Wendle states that a good prospect was obtained in the bottom.
Several test-pits were also put down near the mouths of the creek to depths
of 8 to 12 feet and showed that some gold occurs in the surface gravels.
The shaft showed that there is at least one deep channel near the mouth
of the creek which is below water-level. There is sufficient grade for
hydraulicking the surface gravels in the lower part of the creek if they are
found to contain values high enough to pay, but the deep channel cannot
be reached. There would be a difficulty, however, in disposing of the tail-
ings in that a “ranch” is located in Pleasant valley opposite the mouth
of the creek.

Conklin Gulch

Conklin gulch (Figure 15) flows from the southeast into Williams
creek at Barkerville and is the main tributary of Williams creek. The road
leading to Grouse creek follows along the north side of the valley of the
creek to the summit between it and French creek, and the trail leading to
mount Proserpine passes up and crosses the creek in the upper part. The
valley is comparatively narrow with fairly steeply sloping sides, except near
the summit between it and French creek, where it is broad and the sides
gently sloping. It is drift-filled throughout, and only at a few places in
the upper part is the bedrock exposed in the bottom of the valley and only
rarely on the sides. The drift filling is especially deep near the junction
with Willams creek, where the ground is 90 feet deep.

The present creek, just above its junction with Williams creek, flows
in a narrow channel between rock rims a few feet above the level of Williams
Creek flats and bedrock above the level of the creek is exposed in the old
hydraulic pit on the right side near the mouth. The deep channel, which
is graded to the bottom of Williams Creek valley, lies between the hydraulic
pit and the present creek. The ground continues fairly deep for about
2,000 feet up from the mouth, where, as shown by old shafts, it is about
80 feet deep. Farther up, the depths are 48 to 60 feet and—above the
broad part—20 to 50 feet. The gradient of the present creek for the first
4,000 feet upstream averages 7-5 per cent, for the next 4,000 feet 5-5 per
cent, and for the upper part 7-5 per cent. The gradient in the lowest
section of the creek is steeper in some places than in others, and it is said that