Amador ledger., 1900-02-16
It's Relation to The Precious
Metal.
GREAT GRAVEL BEDS PASS THROUGH THE SIERRA
Many Side Channels of Fine Gravel
Garry Gold in Paying Quantities
Covered by Clay, etc.
lBY JOHN A. FAULL.l

period of geological history much
higher than they are now, no observ-
ing man can deny. There is good rea-
son to believe that the average height
was at least equal to the highest peak
to-day. For proof we have but to
look at Mount Shasta and its glacier in
our own State; the three sisters
Mt. Mclaughlin, Mt. Baker and Mt.
Rainier-in Oregon and Washington
as we'll as the idol of Oregon, Mt.
Hood, and lesser heights along this
great mountain chain. This might be
added to the first chapter. Gold is a
very soft metal, and when carried any
distance is often reduced to scales, as
we find it at Gold Bluff. Here we have
an ocean hydraulic breaking in the
gravel bluff for three miles upon its
front, and bringing down thousands of
tons of gravel and carrying it out into
the ocean, being ground by the tide
and thrown up on the beach. The
gold found here is in thin scales and
that found on the klamath, Scott and
Trinity rivers is coarse. 1t is only
necessary to follow this action to find
that the moraine is decidedly unique
and uniform in it's drift. Again we
will go up Scott river, the Trinity and
the Klamath, and we find benches of
gravel-bearing gold, one after another
L nj
sibly have left either before or after
the uplift of the continent.
We are not dependent upon our
country alone for proof of what we
say, but throughout South America,
South Australia, New Zealand, Africa
and India, so far as we have been able
to gather from reliable data, the main
points are proven. There are many
side channels of fine gravel carrying
gold in paying quantities covered by
clay, lime and sandstone, which are
doubtless streams flowing from the
main glacial moraine. To combat with
the time-honored theory recognized by
men of ability throughout the world
is rather daring procedure, but if it
succeeds in disturbing the quiet in the
placid city it can do no harm. From
the west of the Sierra the great
gravel beds are found to pass through
the mountain chain, but we do not find
them to be of such magnitude as those
n ciA 70 tx-if
Althause, Democratic Gulch, Applegate,
Rogue river, Blue Mountain, The John
Day, Powder river, Brent river and
Grand Run river; further to the east
Boise Basin, the Rocky Bar, Lewiston
and Florence, the YOcama, Pashaton
to the Swauk, still we will follow this
range in what we now call the Cascades
and on the line of Mt. Baker.
Go to Mt. Rainier, take a painful of
mud, wash it and you will find that
residue to contain gold. Go farther
north and you will find it extending up
into Montana through the Panhandle
of Idaho. along the north branch of
the Ceur de Laine. These ridges are
much broken, it is true, and eroded,
but it could not have been deposited by
any other agent than that of glacial
action. We will have to return to
California. After we trace to the sum-
nit these gravel streams, through the
Sierra Nevadas and SiskiyOus to the
Althause on the east side of the noun
tains, we find near the summit large
powders, some blue clay and red,
coarse gold, in nearly every instance
angular in form, showing that they
have not been washed from any great
distance. How came they there?
There is no sign of river and the
powders are as smooth as any found
along the river banks. Along the
Illinois and other rivers, which 1 have
heretofore spoken of, the gravel is the
same. We go out upon the great plain
east of Spokane where shafts have
been sunk to the depth of forty, forty
five and fifty feet through the. gravel
for the purpose of obtaining water,
with blue clay at the water line; we
will continue our trip over this plain
to the Ceur de Laine and St. Mary
rivers, up the south and north forks
of the Coeur de Laine river, and we
find the action of the giants plow all
along the line. We will take look at
Lake Pownderril and Sinaacatine and
we will see the footmarks of the same
agent as it plowed its way into the
great Columbia river. We will turn
to the right and go up into British
Columbia and on to Alaska, stopping
on our way, however, at Stikeue river,
and we will look upon the face Of the
great glacier that is pouring its mighty
floods into that stream. We will take
a pan of sand at the foot of this
glacier and wash it carefully, and we
find that we have that substance called
gold. Millions of tons of these sands
have been carried down that mighty
stream at Desse creek. We dig the
gold out of the frozen banks as large
at times as a pea, still regular, while
the powders are irregular and smooth.
This same feature is found upon Fra
zier river and the Cariboo up into
Alaska, upon the high plain at the
head waters of the Yukon and Stevens
rivers; here we find system of lakes
of he