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sides. Two and a half miles below Stewart creek the creek flows in a
narrow rock canyon about 100 feet deep and one-quarter mile long, and
there is probably a buried rock channel alongside. Below the canyon the
main valley widens, but the stream valley is narrow and is cut in drift
deposits to a depth of 50 to over 100 feet. Lower down where the broad
valley of West Pass creek enters from the northeast the valley is deep and
is flanked on either side by broad terraces of gravels overlying glacial silt
and clay. The terraces extend for several miles downstream to the junction
with Willow river. The valley is of interest at the present time chiefly
because it has been staked several times as possible dredging ground.

Mining of the deep channel of the creek a short distance below the
canyon was carried on from 1895 to 1897 by Big Valley Creek Gold Mines,
Limited, of which Major C. T. Dupont, Victoria, B.C., was president and
W. Adams, superintendent. A shaft was sunk about 37 feet on the left
bank of the creek and about 700 feet of tunnel was run across the channel
and upstream; an incline was also made, as the shaft was not deep enough
to reach the bottom of the channel. Some coarse gold was found, but is
said to have been very unevenly distributed, and no regular pay-streak was
found. All the materials filling the channel were gravels and some difficulty
was experienced in draining the ground. A shaft about 80 feet deep was
also sunk in the bank on the south side to test the ground for hydraulicking.
Considerable mining by ground-sluicing was done by Chinese on the
gravel benches a short distance below the Adams shaft, where surface
gravels a few feet thick overlie glacial silt and clay. Mr. L. Muller, who
examined and weighed the gold obtained by the Chinese, states that it
amounted to 53 ounces, and was about the size of flaxseed. Some drilling
to test the ground on Big Valley near the mouth of Stewart creek was done
in 1912 by T. Dickerson, and in 1913 by J. T. Towers. Three holes were
put down in 1912, two at the mouth of Stewart creek and one lower down
near the road crossing of Valley creek. The upper holes were 30 and 60
feet deep and the lower one about 80 feet, but not to bedrock. The gold
values are said to have amounted to 24 cents per cubic yard in the lower
hole, but only 2 to 10 cents in the upper holes. Three holes were put down
by Towers and the values are said to have been less than those obtained
by Dickerson.

The ground in Big valley probably exceeds 100 feet in depth, or too
deep for the bottom to be reached by dredging, but there is a possibility
that an interglacial pay-streak occurs in the valley and that there is some
gold in the surface gravels along the sides. There does not seem to be
much gold in the surface deposits in the valley bottom down to the canyon.
There are pay-gravels on the benches below the canyon, but whether they
are sufficiently extensive to pay for mining on a large scale is not known.

Burns Creek

The lower part of this creek is shown on Figure 21. It heads in Burns
mountain, flows north into Slough creek, and is noted for the number and
complexity of the rock channels in the lower part of its course and for the
coarse gold that was found on the upper part of the creek nearly to its
source, as well as in places on the lower part. Near the foot of the steep part