The nugget sat there in plain sight, though it was covered in dirt, while hundreds of people had passed that way every day.

The gravels in contact with the bedrock or false bedrock base are often the richest. The same facts apply to the alluvial paystreaks that are formed on gravel bars; the lowest level of the gold-bearing gravel is normally the richest.

Prospectors often wonder why gold deposits in veins like it does. Why is one vein rich while another is barren, even though they are only a few hundred feet apart?

Every time we prospected here we found gold, sometimes some really coarse flakes, but no large nuggets (yet).