The grain-size distribution of ancient alluvial systems is commonly determined from surface samples of vertically exposed sections of gravel deposits. This method relies on the hypothesis that the grain-size distribution obtained from a vertical cross-section is equivalent to that of the river bed. We report a field test of this hypothesis on samples collected on an active, gravel-bed, braided stream: the Urumqi River in China. We compare data from volumetric samples of a trench excavated in an active thread and surface counts performed on the trench vertical faces. We show that the grain-size distributions obtained from all samples are similar and that the deposit is uniform at the scale of the river active layer, a layer extending from the surface to a depth of approximately ten times the size of the largest clasts.