Amador ledger., 1900-02-02
The Great River Channel of
California.
THF FAMOUS DEPOSITS OF WEALTH IN THEN
This Great Gravel Bed, the Channels
and Drifts Run North and
South.
IBY J. A. FAULL.l

mission, occupy little space in'your
valuable paper. In the present instance
| might quote the ancient aphorism:
'sFools rush IN where angels fear to
tread.' This effort is being made with
full knowledge of what it portends,
but not until after having spent up
wards of forty years in making investi
cations and travelling the length and
breadth of the continent more than
once, and not this continent alone,
have come to a positive opinion and
am prepared to deal with facts. To
the unprejudiced mind these facts may
appeal. 1t cannot do any harm if it
does not do any good. 1t may stimu-
late investigation from a new stand
point.
l will begin with this assertion-that
what is and has been known as the
Great River Channel of California,
and which has yielded millions of dol
lars of gold, is not a river in the sense
in which we have been led to believe
When these channels are spoken of
they have been called eocene, miocene
and pliocene. Using the language of
Professor Lyle, that great thinker and
investigator, who has copied the
Greek term to convey to the mind the
significance of his language" 1.-The
dawn, the recent, less recent and the
more recent These terms are made
use of in order to impress upon the
mind the geologist's idea of time or
epoch or period in the world s history.
Some students think that this river
system consisted of river channels in
the ancient sea before the uplift of our
continent. Others have claimed with
equal force that these great gold bear
ing channels were rivers coursing north
and south after the main chain az
peared above the ancient sea; holding,
of course that gold was formed from
some pre-existing rocks.
We now come to the question-from
whence came these channels and what
are they, and how came they in the
position in which we now find them?
To gain an intelligent answer we must
look at things as they are. In the
first instance, we find this great gravel
bed and the channels and drifts run
ming along the edge of the main noun
tain chain in northerly and southerly
direction with what appears to be nu-
merous arms running almost due east
and west, being crossed by the present
river system in its course from the
snow-clad mountains to the sea.
If we look at the channels course
and then at the trend of the present
rivers we find that they cross at almost
right angles, cutting through and car
rying away great areas of gravel,
which is found deposited in various
forms along their course, such bars,
benches, small channels, ravines and
wide areas of deposit upon an uneven
bedrock. The ravines form fill from
the force of the surrounding waters. 1
will instance for my present purpose
the Clear Creek district in Shasta
county between Lassen's Butte on the
one hand and the Trinity Range on the
other. The great gravel channel of
the east has been broken and swept
away from its north and south course
at this point. If we examine this sec
ton we find French Gulch very rich
deposit of loose gravel, Clear Greek,
South Fork, Mule Greek, Horse Town,
Red Hill, Igo, Hardscrabble, Eagle
Creek, Lower Cottonwood, Begun,
Dry Creek and Hay Fork of the Trim
ity, extending to the herein mentioned
points and covering 22O, 900 acres of
land, at some points looking like river
channels, again showing as it were es-
carpments, at other times covering
vast areas of uneven, but gentle, slop-
ing bedrock, the bedrock slate, gran
ite, sandstone and oftentimes clay,
where the bedrock is slate the gravel
is blue hence called the blue lead.
Where the bedrock is granite the
gravel shows redish color This is
caused, doubtless, by the iron in the
decomposed mica. Some of the ra-
vines have been rich, others very poor;
the whole district being known to
miners as very spotted and uneven.
This is one point. Now let us turn our
attention to the channel where it has
not been swept away from the higher
Sierra. We will take Sierra county
as an initial point where the drift min
ing has been carried on in the blue
gravel channel, and here let me note
that it was the deposit and drift mines
of this county, such as those at Forest
City. Wet Ravine, Rabbit Creek and
Port Wine, and other points that
might be mentioned, that the name
Blue Lead got its cognomen. The
North. South and Middle Yubas we're
formed by glacial rivers carrying their
gravel deposits along their line, de-
posting their wealth at Moores Flat,
Chips Flat and other points along
the line of its waters, which can be
seen by examination.
The sloping nature of the land from
the mountains to the sea averages
about y degrees. All this we must
take into account in the study of this
subject. You ask me the question:
Whance came the lava which is found