The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-05-20
A DEAD RIVER.
The Phenomena of the sierras--A study
Es-4 for the Scientists.

though one knows little of the scienc
OF geology, he cannot look but with yer
great interest upon such a marked ObjeC
as dead volcano, fragment of sea-shOr
or sea-iioor far inland, the remnant of
lake basin, the worn remains of meun
talB..or other like prominent feature il
/ the process of world-Duilding.
] Next to the views of the mountain
crossed and the deserts traversed by tn
trans-continental railway, the rive
scenery-which is so large and eminen
in the bordering andscape-perbaps ling
ers clearest and fullest, certainly greenest
IN the travellers memory. The MiSsis
| sippi and Missouri, with their magnfi
cent. bridges Dale Creek, Green ant
Bear Rivers, the American, the San Joa
quin, and others of less note that ar,
crossed; the Platte, Bitter Creek, EchC
Canyon, Weber, Humboldt and Trucke,
\ Rivers followed throughout most of thei
extent, each presents its characteristic
! picture. or pictures which, once seen, arr
.2ot soon forgotten.
: Bns there is one river crossed by thi,
railway which is noted by but few
travellers. If questioned with reference
to river in the locality most who have
crossed it would scout the idea of its ex
istence. And well they might, for there
are no peculiarities of timber or other veg.
citation to mark its course; no bridge
spans it; you do not identify it as liver
from your superficial view of it, nor do
your ears catch the swash of its current
or the thunder of its falls; its shore. pre-
sent no external views; its bed no notice
able depression ofsurface.
1t is dead river.
Over taken by the disaster of a great
geological change, its waters found other
channels; its bed was dried up and deep
ly covered, and soon began to be cut
away by new system of small transverse
streams. But all this occurred so far back
towards the time the "mOrnmg stars
sang together" that it was a very old
event when the human race was yOsng.
These new streams have cut through not
only the everything volcanic ash and sand.
but the deep gravel bed of the ancient
stream and one 10 three thousand feet into
the solid granite beneath, scooping out
cany ons or chasms Of such great depth
that the brain becomes dizzy as you look
into theni from the intervening ridges.
This old river-bed lies on the California
slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains,
thirty to forty miles below the summit,
and parallel to its central ridge. Ii has
been definitely traced some sixty-five
miles; from Little Grizzly, in Sierra Coun-
ty, at an elevation of 5000 feet above the
sea. south through Nevada County, and
to Forest Hill in Placer County, at an
elevation of $500 feet, crossing the Pacific
Railroad ridge at Dutch Flat and Gold
Run. Some hold that there are gravel
beds south of Forest Hill which belong
to 81, L,,f
assign them to some other. North of Lit
tie Grizzly it is supposed TO b. deeply
buried beneath volcanic material.
The direction of the flow was south
southeast, and the elevations given below
show that the portion traced had an aver
sge fall of nearly thirty-tOur feet to the
mile, If the fragments that remain have
the same relative heights as when the
river carried current, which of course
cannot be known.
The new rivers run at right angles to the
old stream, which cuts their separating
ridges from two or three hundred to a
thOus nd feet below their SUBMITS. Its
gravel is mostly capped with volcanic ma
Terial but at Gold Run there is no over
lying accumulation. and the Pacific Rail-
road track rests Immediately on the old
river gravel.
The streams cutting through il have re-
distributed along their own courses, and
the country between, a large portion of its
material. The chief of these are: In ST.
ezra COunty-Canyon Greek, Goodyear
Creek, North Yuba, Rock Creek, Oregon
Ravine, Wet Ravine, and Middle Yuba.
In Nevada COunty-SOuth Yuba, Rock
Creek, Deer Greek, Green Horn, Steep
Hollow, Bear River. the boundary be
tween Nevada and Placer. and washing
the north base of the Pacific Railroad
ridge; washing the south, or rather the
southeast base of this ridge, the North
Fork of the American and south OF thar.
the other affiuents of the same river.
There is evidence that this ancient river
was large one, for its bed of sand and
gravel is half mile wide; that it carried
a great body of water, for there are many
powders in some parts of its length, rang
ing in weight from fraction of ton 10
twenty tons, evenly distributed between
its shores. showing that the current was
of sufficient volume to handle these great
masses: that it flowed for ages, for its de-
posiU is of enormous depth-frOm one to
more than three hundred feet-and the
largest mas ses of rock are smoothly water
worn.
1t is the opinion of some who have ex-
amined il with reference to determining
its character that it was a stream like the
Columbia River for size. 1t has all the
of the bed of modern
water-wOrn gravel, bars,
bends with cddies on the short curves,
RIFLES, rapids, falls, fiat stones with the
points down stream, water-wOrn DRIFT
wood, trunks of trees with the butts up
stream, tributary brooks. etc.
The reader by now has perhaps conclu-
ded that this ancient river-bed is of interest
only TO the geologist, and is curious to
know why this somewhat extended de-
scription of it, when it is wholly worth
less for any of the many uses to which
living stream may be put.
Though of great interest to the geOlO-
gist. it has been and continues 10 be of far
greater interests to thousands who know
little and care less for the science of geOlO-
w. Doubtless many times more time and
money in the aggregate have been expen-
Iled in hunting for the fragments that re-
main OF this siXty-five miles. and the eX-
tensions beyond the points to which it is
traced, than have been in searching for the
source of the Nile; and not many of these
hunters would exchange few
lcres on the main lead for the renown of
solving the problem of the Nile source.
1t is known as the blue Lead" or big |
Blue Lead, - from the color of a portion of
is formation. The portions of the chan
lel mined have been very rich in free
,old. Excepting that taken from the
IuartZ veins by crushing, this ancient |
,hannel and other smaller Cnes, of which /
here are many, have been the source,
lirect and indirect, of about all the gold
obtained. frwas the gold washed out of
his and other ancient beds by the newer
streams cutting through them and de-
posted in the shallow gravel of their own
beds that was at first mined so easily and /
With such great profit.
There is a limit below the Blue Lead, on
he streams cutting through it. where
hey never paid. They grew richer and 1
he geald coarser, as general thing, the /
higher they were ascended, until certain 1
point was reached, beyond which they /
have not paid. This upper limit is found .
20 be the eastern border Of this ancient /
stream. except where extended By other
ancient channels, tributaries of the Blue
Lead River, or pertaining to a river sys- /
EN- of still another period. The deep .
)lacers lie along these. The small /
streams, ravines. flats and hillsides on the I
'lopes of the present rivers at and near |