Vital Creek.

Gold on Vital

Creek.

Tom’s Creek.

12 c¢ FINLAY AND OMENICA RIVERS.

it and to make a traverse on foot to Tacla Lake across the strike of
the rocks. The old trail from Hogem to Vital Creek is still in good
condition. From Vital Creek to Tom’s Creek the trail is little used,
but for the remainder of the distance on to Tacla Lake a good trail
has been recently built by the Provincial Government in order to
facilitate communication with the mining camp at Tom’s Creek. The
trail leaves the Omenica at Old Hogem and follows up the valley of
Silver Creek to Vital Creek, a tributary of the latter, passing over
sandy and gravelly flats, forested with black pine, most of the way.
Before reaching Vital Creek the trail leaves the wide valley of the
Omenica and enters the mountains. Vital Creek is a rapid mountain
stream twenty or thirty feet wide and four or five miles long. Gold
was discovered on it in 1869, and it has been worked more or less ever
since, but latterly with but little profit.

Three white men, including Mr. Vital the discoverer, and some
Chinamen, were engaged on it at the time of our visit, but they did
not speak hopefully of their prospects, and the stream may be regarded
as worked out. A considerable quantity of silver amalgam (arquerite)
has been found with che gold in the alluvial washings on Vital Creek.
It has not been found in situ.

From Vital Creek the trail follows up Silver Creek for a couple of
miles, and then turns westward up a branch running parallel to Vital
Creek. Three miles from Silver Creek the valley widens out, and
for some iniles its bottom is filled with a succession of small lakes
connected by short winding streams. Nine miles from Silver Creek
we reached Tom’s Creek, a small mountain stream coming from the
south. Tom’s Creek, as an auriferous stream, was not discovered until
1889, and was practically worked out during the years 1890-91-92.
In 1892, about a dozen white men and Indians and a few Chinamen
were at work on it, but few of the claims did much more than pay
expenses. The discovery of an auriferous stream like Tom’s Oreek,
close to Vital Creek, twenty years after the finding of gold on the
latter, shows what a small proportion of the country has yet been
thoroughly prospected.

From Tom’s Creek we followed up the wide valley of Kenny Creek
for nine miles, passing several small lakes on the way, to the summit
of the pass between the Omenica and Tacla Lake. The elevation of
the summit is approximately 1644 feet above Tacla Lake, or 3915
feet above the sea. After crossing the summit, the track followed for
a short distance a stream flowing towards Tacla Lake; then, after
crossing a spur from the mountains, it descends rapidly towards Tacla