Flat doesn’t mean worthless!!
In reference to the fossilized tree stump I wrote of earlier, when I started dredging in the “chute”, I began close to the side of the channel. I went down through the overburden about a foot, and found that I had started dredging directly over a large boulder. My first thought was; “only I could choose to start dredging and have to move a boulder, almost before I got anything else done”. (lol)
So, I continued dredging the top of the boulder until I located the sides of it. Then, I cleared the materials on one side and found that the boulder was only about eight inches thick. I had enough of the materials removed on the down river side, that I could get my fingers under the opposite side and flip the flat boulder off and into the downriver hole I’d dredged. Then, I found that the work was worth it. There was another boulder, roughly the same diameter, but with a flat top, directly under the first boulder. I knew it was going to be a good area by the number of one to two gram nuggets lying on the flat top. I guessed the gold was washing out of the bank, and when it landed on the upper boulder, it slid off. Then, (I thought) rather than burying itself in the overburden, it worked its way under the top boulder and stayed there, just as if it was on bedrock. (In retrospect, a probable poor conjecture on my part).
Back it the days, I had developed the habit of picking up any sizable nuggets and placing them in a vial that I kept in a small pocket I had made on the sleeve of my wetsuit. In this case, I believe there might have been up to a quarter oz. of these little nuggets residing on the flat boulder.
After I had all of the small nuggets in the vial, using the suction nozzle, I cleaned the rest of the materials off of the top of the boulder so that I wouldn’t be guilty of leaving the finer gold behind. Then, I started dredging off of the boulder towards the middle of the river. I now believe that was a big mistake, as when I got down to bedrock, I could see that the boulder was sitting on, or near, bedrock. Much, much later, (years), I came to the conclusion that there should have been much more gold under the flat boulder than what I found on top of it. “Hindsight is always 20/20”. (lol)
Be that as it may, I was on bedrock, and, I’d already made up my mind on the direction I would dredge in, so I went on my merry way. I continued towards the middle of the river, (about 6 or 7 feet more), until I intersected the bedrock trough that I expected to find there. Then, I turned and followed the trough upriver, picking up small nuggets all the way. By the time I reached and cleaned the “tree stump” described earlier, I had filled the two oz. vial I kept in my sleeve pocket and started on another two oz vial. But, I can’t help but feel that if I had thought it all out, I would have moved and dredged under that flat boulder. I think that if I had, I would have probably filled up the first vial, before I started towards the middle of the river.
The moral of this story is; NEVER be so set in your plans, that you don’t take the time to consider possible alternatives. Be willing to improvise as conditions change. It could make the difference between getting “some” gold, or getting “a lot” of gold. (lol)
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