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,• significantly reduced below a depth of 300 feet. This crystalline bedrock has a very limited water storage capacity, and moat of the remaining water that fella • as precipitation is returned to the atmosphere by evapotranspiration. The ground water that is present in these rocks probably migrates downward and laterally through a northeast-southwest trending fracture system towards the erne above Cash Gulch. The presence of a small spring several hundred feet below the Hazel A edit tends to support this observation. 'lhe flow from this spring varies considerably with the time of the year. It usually decreased • throughout the summer and fall as the amount of water stored in the fracture x3~stem also decreases. The U.S. Bureau of Mines ed ve test holes 200 feet south of the proposed area, and moni _ • ow mto these drill holes. sae testa establish at a ground water lev op m set 86 feet below the surface during the period between September and December. Since it is situated 30 to 65 feet higher than the elevation of the U.S. Bureau of Mines' teat area, the ground water level under the White Cloud and Wynona mines, and the proposed millsite and tailings impoundment area is somewhat lower than 53 feet below the surface. • A similar decline in the ground water level undoubtedly occurs beneath these areas during these same months. Vegetation Information • No rare, threatened, or endangered plant species have been identified in the Gold Hill area, or on the mill sites. the pre~~iously submitted Cash Mine Permit Application included descriptions and lists of the trees, grasses, forba, and shrubs that have been identified in this area. The present vegetation on the land surface that were affected by the construc- • tion of the mill and tailings retention structure, varied from scattered to moderately vegetated. Because of their acidic nature and poorly developed soil profile, the mine dumps have a vegetation Grover that consists of a few small stands of Ponderosa Pine and low shrubs on their eastern and southern faces. The percentage of ground covered by vegetation can be directly attributed to the date or period of the let m•n•na, activity on the property. Since the White • Cloud mine was last worked during 1905, it has a thicker stand of small pon- derosa pine growing on its mine dump than on the Wynona mine dump, which was worked during the 1940'x. Approffimately 50 percent of the White Cloud mine dump ix covered by vegetation, the nearby Wynona mine dump hex only about 35 percent of its surface covered by small pine trees and shrubs. 'The • vegetation at the Who Do mine ie estimated to cover approximately 15 percent of the land surface on the previously disturbed ground. Approximately 70 per- cent ofthe ground where the n"ll;ng complex ix located ix covered by vegeta- tion. Several small, scattered stands of Ponderosa pine and individual Blue Spruce and Rocky Mountain juniper trees are growing here in a meadow com- poaed of native grasses and xmall xhrube. Perhaps 20 percent of this area is • covered by these trees, while 40 percent of the ground hex a mixture of Slender Wheat-graae, Mountain Muhly, Parry Oat-grass, and 'Thurber Fescue growing