Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, July 1899: Volume LV, No. 3, July 1899Various
Religion
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, July 1899: Volume LV, No. 3, July 1899
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
Taking the mountains in their entirety, it is difficult from single
points of view to determine for them any definite relation. There are
so many valleys in close proximity to one another, some very ancient
and others relatively modern, and with trends so opposed in all
directions, that in the absence of a dominant ridge or mass this
relation becomes very confused; and I was not in a position, with the
limited time at my command and the deficiency of rock outcrops, to
positively define any main line or axis of uplifts. Yet I suspect that
there is one such, with a generally east and west bearing, whose trend
might correspond with that of the ridge already referred to, which,
with a southwesterly deflection, unites Dome Mountain with the mass
that separates the upper Eldorado from Chief Gulch. What strikes one
as particularly interesting in the conformation of some of these
mountains when seen from an elevation is their hummocky appearance.
This is particularly noticeable in the mountains which close in the
Eldorado and Bonanza Valleys. With considerable actual elevations,
they convey the impression of being merely swells or undulations of an
open surface, very much like magnified morainic knolls in a glaciated
country. This depressed type of mountain structure, with the evidence
of its expanded valleys and gently flowing contours, carries with it
the proof of long-continued degradation, and of a history whose pages
read far back into geological chronology.
With the evidences of antiquity before us, there are yet indications,
amounting, it seems to me, almost to proof, that many of the more
pronounced features of the region date their origin from only a
comparatively recent period. Such is the case with a number of valleys
that are tributary to the main ones, and even the latter appear to
have been modified by late stream displacements. Taking the Eldorado
or Bonanza, with their open U-shaped troughs and in most parts gently
sloping banks, as types of the older valleys, it is surprising to note
how many of their tributaries have the deeply incised and narrow
contours; and I am led almost to conclude that some of these are
really of very late construction. The stream displacements, which, by
reason of the indices they give to the finding of new placers, are now
beginning to be so attentively studied by the miner and prospector,
are emphatic in their testimony in this direction.[2] One has but to
note the triangular area that is included between French Gulch
(tributary to Eldorado abreast of Claims 17 and 18) and Adams Creek
(tributary to Bonanza at Claim 6 below Discovery) to be convinced of
the actuality of recent transformations. Most of the miners regard the
high-level gravels of this tract--of French Hill, Gold Hill (opposite
to Grand Forks Village), Skookum Hill, and Adams Hill--so rich in gold
as to make the claims fairly the rivals of the creek claims, as
representing the ancient high-level flow of the Eldorado and Bonanza,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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