158

except in the upper part and in a few places along the sides. A tunnel
starting near the road, was run in the seventies and several prospect pits
and shafts were sunk along the creek, but apparently little gold was found.

Upper Lightning Creek

Lightning creek, one of the most famous gold-bearing streams of
Cariboo, rises in Bald Mountain plateau, near the source of Jack of Clubs
ereek, and flows northwest and west for 25 miles to its junction with Swift
river. The two streams form the headwaters of Cottonwood river, which
flows into the Fraser about 12 miles above Quesnel. The valley of upper
Lightning creek (Figure 26) down to Stanley, 7 miles from its source, is
narrow and steep-sided. Its sides rise steeply to heights of 200 to 300 feet,
and above that height slope more gradually to the summit levels 1 to 13
miles away from the stream and about 1,500 feet above its bed. In the
narrow part of the valley above Stanley there are two rock canyons, one at
the mouth of Houseman (Eagle) creek and the other, known as Spruce
canyon, 13 miles above Stanley. There is a buried channel of the creek on
the north side opposite Spruce canyon and another beneath the point
opposite the lower part of Van Winkle creek. They were mined out by
drifting, mostly in the early days. Bedrock is exposed in the part of the
creek above Stanley, at the canyons, and in places on the sides of the valley,
but is largely concealed by glacial deposits which partly fill the valley.
The depth to bedrock in the part above Spruce canyon was 30 to 50 feet and
the deep channel was found by the miners to be 20 to 50 feet wide. The
ground from the canyon to Stanley was 60 to 100 feet deep and the deep
channel 50 to 140 feet wide. The creek flows in a comparatively wide and
flat-bottomed valley for 73 miles from Stanley to Beaver Pass House,
except that just below Stanley and opposite the lower part of Davis creek
the valley is partly blocked by morainic deposits of a valley glacier. The
stream along this stretch has been diverted to the south side of the valley
by the moraines and in a few places flows over bedrock. ‘There are no
moraines in the valley bottom below the mouth of Davis creek and the
valley flat is 500 to over 1,000 feet wide. The depth to bedrock is 100 to
200 feet or possibly more in the part below Stanley. The deep rock channel,
where it has been mined, was found to be 100 to over 250 feet wide. The
old workings showed that the buried channel has a fairly even grade,
gradually decreasing downstream, and that there are no very marked sharp
rises or any deep depressions in the bedrock. At Beaver Pass House the
main valley swings off towards the north through Beaver pass and the
present stream flows southwest in a comparatively narrow, V-shaped valley
and continues in it to below Wingdam, 6 miles below Beaver Pass House
and 4 miles from the junction of Lightning creek and Swift river. It is
possible that the main drainage of Lightning creek at one time went by way
of Beaver pass and that the present drainage in the section from Beaver
Pass House to Wingdam has been reversed, but the depth to bedrock in
Beaver pass—which if known might determine the matter—is not known.

Overlying the bedrock in the valley bottom the deposits are mostly
glacial, consisting of boulder clay, stratified sands and gravels, and silt or
clay (slum), and, at the surface, alluvial deposits of the present streams.