ern end is gold-bearing.

4. The absence of fine gold on Alice Shea Creek may be
a direct result of the steep creek grade. The surge of spring
freshets and the breaking loose of ice-dammed water over shal-
low auriferous gravel on a steep grade would probably move
most of the fine gold down-stream. Alice Shea Creek joins a
fairly flat stretch of Wheaton Creek. If any fine gold mi-
grated down Alice Shea Creek it might be expected to stop on
the flat Wheaton Creek grade. Any gold would probably be con-

centrated on bed-rock beneath creek-level.

5. Alice Shea Creek, in its lower stretch below the can-
yon, makes a wide sweep to the south (see Fig. 1) before join-
ing Wheaton. A drift ridge below the canyon entrance and at
the start of the sweep suggests that the pre-glacial channel
does not coincide with the present lower course of the creek.
There is a depression immediately east of a serpentine ridge
east of the No. 2 post of lease No. 360. The buried channel
of lower Alice Shea Creek may run between the foot of the
canyon and the point just mentioned. Any gold in the channel
would probably be on bed-rock.

6. Placer-gold deposits in the lower stretch of Wheaton
Creek were partly protected from ice erosion because of their
position near the bottom of a canyon incised in a wide valley.
Canyon incision in late Tertiary and interglacial time did not
progress far south of the mouth of Alice Shea Creek. Conse-
quently, any concentrations of placer-gold in Wheaton Creek
valley south of the mouth of Alice Shea Creek were probably
dispersed during the Pleistocene.

Methods of Working. Conditions on Wheaton Creek are not
suitable for hydraulicking the auriferous gravel. The lack
of sluice-box grade and dump space combined with large boul-
ders and only moderate water-supply (about 30 second-feet)
make the method impracticable.

In the section of Wheaton Creek north of the Peacock
lease the creek-grade is sufficiently steep and the gravel
overlying bed-rock sufficiently shallow so that by ground-
sluicing or booming it is possible to uncover and clean bed-
rock. Ground-sluicing has been attempted without satisfac-
tory results, on the flatter section of the creek south of
lease No. 402 but the creek’ is’ too flat (roughly 2 to 2 1/2
per cent.) and the gravel too deep for bed-rock in the bottom
of the creek to be reached by this method.

The value of the auriferous gravel is sufficiently high

Sek