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GE«

Prb

/ 6^9

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

CHARLES 0. WALCOTT, DIRECTOR

MAP OF ALASKA

SHOWD^G KNOWN GOLD-BEABING ROCKS

WITH

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

CONTAINING SKETCHES OF THE

GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, AND GOLD DEPOSITS

AND

ROUTES TO THE GOLD FIELDS

PRBPAKBD II« ACCOBDANCR with PuBMO RBSOL^mON No. 8 OF THK FlPTY-PIPTH C0NORK88
SBOOND BB88ION, APPROVBD J>J(UARV SW, 189H

PRINTED IN THE ENQRAVINO AND PRINTINQ DIVISION OP THE

UNITED StATES QEOLOQIGAL SURVEY

WASHINQTON, D. C.

1898

r • • •••

• • • • » •

♦ • • >

• >

,•» » • » «, .

^ A 9 « » ,

brouj

prov(

Alasl

I)er80

Hon,

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

Department of the Interior,

United States Geological Survey,

Washington, D. C, February 2, 1898.
Sir : In accordance with your instructions, I have somewhat hastily
brought together in the following pages such facts as seem likely to
prove of immediate use to the prospetitors and miners who may visit
Alaska.

Messrs. W. H. Dall and F. C. Schrader, both of whom have
I)ersonally studied the region, have rendered efficient aid in this work.
Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

S. F. Emmons,

Geologittt,
Hon. Charles D. Wah-ott,

Director United Stales Geological Survey.

^'StSt.

CONTENTS.

Introduction .
Geographical sketch

Rivera

Climatic conditions

Routes to Klondike
Geological sketch .

Physical description

Original deposits, or quartz veins

Detrital or placer deposits

Probable extent of gold-bearing deposits

Other metals than gold ....

Coal and lignite

Page.

itf

MAP OF ALASKA, WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

INTRODUCTION.

Alaska was first visited by a Rnssian expedition under Bering in
1741. In 1799 the territory was granted to a Busso- American fur
company by the Emperor Paul VIII, and in 1839 the charter was
renewed for twenty-four years. In 1867 it was ceded to the United
States for a money payment of $7,200,000. The treaty was signed on
March 30 and ratified on June 20, 1867; on the 18th of October fol-
lowing, formal transfer of the country was made to the military force
of the United States at New Archangel, now called Sitka.

For a long time the wisdom of the purchase of this bleak tract of
unknown land lying largely within the Arctic Circle was seriously
questioned, and Mr. Seward, under whom, as Secretary of State, the
negotiations for its purchase were conducted, was subjected to some
criticism, even ridicule, in consequence. But the energy of the
American people would not allow even so unpromising a region to
remain idle. First, the seal fisheries on the Pribilof Islands were
made to yield a considerable revenue to the Government. Then
valuable gold mines were discovered and successfully worked in the
islands of the Alexander Archipelago and along the adjoining coast,
where the climate was found to be relatively mild and the proximity
to deep and well -protected harbors facilitated the cheap mining and
reduction of the ores. Gradually a few venturesome prospectors
found their way across the mountains into the higher and far colder
regions of the interior. The first mining excitement in the interior
was in the Cassiar mining district in British Columbia around Dease
Lake, near the head of the Stikine River, from 1871 to 1887. Later,
prospectors found their way into the more northern regions and down
the valley of the Yukon into American territory, where they dis-
covered valuable phicers on Birch Creek, Mission Creek, and Forty-
mile Creek, small southern tributaries of the Yukon. In the autumn
of 1896 still richer discoveries were made a short distance east of the
boundary, along the Klondike River, and a great rush of miners to
these now famous diggings set in the following spring. Within a
single year the yield from this region has exceeded in amount the
purchase money for the entire Territory of Alaska, and though a
large portion of the gold has come from territory within the Canadian
lines, American miners for the most part have taken it out.

Accurate data with regard to the geography of Alaska it is as yet
difficult to obtain. The immediate coastline and the many islands
which border it have been mappe<l by the United States Coast and

MAP OF ALASKA, WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

Geodetic Survey, and the course of the great Yukon River, compar-
able in size to the Mississippi, was determined by the Western Union
Telegraph Company's expedition in 1867 and by an expedition in
1869 under Lieut. C. W. Raymond, of the United States Engineers.
What other information has been obtained with regard to the interior
is derived from route and sketch maps made from time to time by
individual explorers, who generally followed the valleys of the larger
streams. Vast tracts of mountain land between these streams are yet
practically unknown. Hence the accompanying map, which is a copy
of part of Chart T of the Coast Survey, in which have been embodied
some details derived from maps of special localities, makes no attempt
to show the general distribution of the mountain ranges in the
interior, but confines itself to a delineation of the courses of the known
streams. In some cases even these tracings of stream coui-ses are
known to be inaccurate, but until a general survey of the interior is
made it will be impossible to correct them.

Ketchum and Lebarge, of the Western Union telegraph expedition,
were apparently the first white men to traverse the entire length of
the Yukon River. They traveled on ice and snow from St. Michael
to Fort Yukon in the winter of 1866-67, and in the following summer
made their way to Fort Selkirk and back, joining on their return
W. H. Dall, who had charge of the scientific work of the expedition,
and who, with Frederick Whymper, had ascended to that point by
water. In later years scientific explorations of the interior have been
made by members of the Canadian and of the United States geolog-
ical surveys. In 1887 Dawson and McConnell, of the Canadian
Survey, ascended the Stikine to the Liard, the former going north-
westward by the Frances and Pelly to Fort Selkirk, the latter
liesceuding the Liard to the Mackenzie and the following season
crossing from the Mackenzie to Fort Yukon by the Porcupine River
and ascending the Yukon to its southwestern sources. William
Ogilvie, of the same corps, entered the Yukon district in 1887 and
has been there most of the time since, engaged in route and boundary
surveys. In 1889 I. C. Russell, of the United States Geological
Survey, in company with a boundary party of the Coast Survey,
ascended the Yukon River from its mouth to the head of boat navi-
gation, coming out over the Chilkoot Pass. In 1891 C. W. Hayes, of
the United States Geological Survey, accompanied Schwatka's expe-
dition up the White, across Scolai Pass, and down the Copper River.
In the summer of 1895 G. F. Becker and W. H. Dall, under orders of
the Director of the United States Geological Survey, made examina-
tions of the coastal regions with reference to gold and coal ; and in
1896 J. E. Spurr, assisted by H. B. Goodrich and F. C. Schrader,
made a reconnaissance of the gold-bearing rocks of the Yukon dis-
trict.

GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

WORKS CONTAINING GENERAL USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT ALASKA.

Travel and Adventures in the Territory of Alaska, by Frederick Whyniper.
Harper and Brothers, New York, 1869.

Alaska and Its Resources, by W. H. Dall. Lee and Shepard, Boston, 1870.

Along Alaska's Great River, by Frederick Schwatka. Cassell and Co.,
New York, 1886.

Alaska, Its History and Resources, Gold Fields, Routes and Scenery, by
Miner Bruce. Lowman and Hanford Stationery and Printing Co., Seattle,
18»5.

Coal and Lignite of Alaska, by W. H. Dall: Seventeenth Ann. R«pt. U. S.
Geol. Survey, Part I, Washington, 1896.

Reconnaissance of the Gold Fields of Southern Alaska, by George F.
Becker: Eighteenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, Part III, Washington,
1898.

Geology of the Yukon Gold District, Alaska, by J. E. Spurr: Eighteenth
Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, Part III, Washington, 1898.

GEOGEAPHICAL SKETCH.

Alaska has an area of 580,107 sfxuare miles. It is roughly quad-
rangular in outline, with a panhandle extension in the southeast
along the coast and a peninsula stretching out into the ocean on the
southwest, which continues in the chain of the Aleutian Islands that
separate Bering Sea from the Pacific Ocean. Its eastern boundary is
formed by the 14ist meridian of longitude west from Greenwich, and
the westernmost portion of its mainland, Cape Prince of Wales, is
on the lG8th meridian, or within 54 miles of the easternmost point
of Asia. In latitude it extends from 54° 40', the southern point of
Prince of Wales Island, to Point Barrow, in 71° 23' north latitude,
far within the Arctic Circle. Its greatest extent in a north-south
line is thus 1,100 miles, and from east to west 800 miles.

The coast-line is much broken by arms of the sea, reaching far
inland, either as open bays, as sounds or submergetl river valleys, or
as fiord-like inlets. Its length is estimated at 18,211 miles, which is
greater than that of the entire coastline of the United States. The
coast also abounds in islands, which cover an aggregsite area of 31,205
square miles and which as a rule are very mountainous. The chain
of the Aleutian Islands, reaching nearly 1,5('0 miles into the Pacific
Ocean, is largely of eruptive origin and contains many volcanic
craters, some of which are yet active. They rise very abruptly from
the sea, often to an elevation of several thousjind ft»et, one on Ilnimak
Island reaching a height of 8,955 feet.

The Alexander Archipelago and the adjoining coast strip, the best-
known and most fre(iuented part of the Territory, resembles the sub-
merged portion of a narrow and precipitous mountiiin system. The
archipelago consists of 1,100 islands, the largest and most southern
of which is Prince of Wales Island. It is intersected by deep and
relatively narrow waterways, which often run far inland and bear

MAP OF ALASKA, WITII DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

evidence of previous occupation by glaeiers. In some cases, as at
Glacier Bay, enormous living glaciers are found at their bead. The
islands themselves are steep-sided and rise to an average elevation of
2,500 feet. On the seaward side of Baranof Island, one of the outer
tier, on which Sitka is situatetl, is a volcanic c^^ter, called Mount
Edgecumb, 2,855 feet high. Further northwestward, forming part
of the same mountain-line, the St. Elias Range, which follows the
immediate coast, contains many high mountains and culminates to
the north in Mount St. Elias at an elevation of 18,024 feet. Mount
Logan, further inland, is supposetl to be still higher, and explorers
report that far in the interior, between Copper River and the Lower
Yukon, there is a group of mountains, extending in the same general
direction, of equal or perhaps even greater elevation, the highest
point of which has been designate<l Mount McKinley.

RIVERS.

The rivers entering into the waters of the Alexander Archipelago
are generally short, and only two, the Stikine and the Taku, are
known to head beyond the crest of the mountains immediately adjoin-
ing the coast. The Chilkat River is a considerable and rapid stream
entering the head of Lynn Canal from the northwest; it is probably
less than 100 miles in length. The next river northward is the
Alsek, about which little is known, but it is supposed to head on
the east side of the St. Elias Range, in the vicinity of Mount Logan.

Copper River is a larger stream than any of those thus far men-
tioned, and heads in a mountainous country, little known, except by
the Indians, who have a village above the canyon which extends
northward from its mouth. Rolled masses of native copper, of which
their knives were made, were obtained somewhere in this region. A
northwestern branch of this stieam is said to head between the
Sushitna and the Tanana rivers, possibly in the lake which on the
map is represeuled as being drained by the Sushitna. The Sushitna
also is an important stream, emptying into the head of Cook Inlet,
very wide and ditlicult of navi»;ation near its mouth owing to the
great rise and fall of the tide. Its sources are in a high mountainous
region, a main northwestern branch being supposed to head near
Mount McKinley.

The next large river, the Kuskokwim, is the se<H>u<l largest in the
Territory, its length being estimated at 500 to 600 miles. It drains a
high mountainous region dillicult of access. The Russians ascended
it in boats as far as the Redoubt Kolmakof or crossed from the Yukon
by a portage near Oknagamut. The currents of the lower stream are
rapid. A winter route was also used from Fort Alexander up the
Nushagak and down the Chulitna; in summer the morasses along
this route may not be passable.

RIVERS.

Beyond Norton Sound, into which empties the great Yukon, that
drains the whole interior region, the principal streams of known
importance are the Kowak and the Noatak, which flow into Kotzebue
Sound. The Colville River, which empties into the Arctic Ocean, is
supposed to head in the same general region as the two just men-
tioned.

The Yukon River has an estimated length of 2,000 miles, of which
three fourths is continuously navigable for river steamers. It empties
into Norton Sound through a wide delta in four principal mouths 50
to 64 miles in length. For about a hundred miles above the delta it
has a general northwest course, then bends at right angles and has a
southwest direction up to the bend at Fort Yukon, just within the
Arctic Circle. Here it receives the waters of the Porcupine, a atream
having the same general southwest course and heading near ciit ^uouth
of the Mackenzie River. Fort Yukon is distant in a direct line about
(J.50 miles from the mouth of the river. Above this point the general
direction of the river is again northwest, but a short di-n ace east of
the international boundary it turns to a north-south course, wkich it
maintains for netulj a hundred miles, through the Upper T^aiuparts.
It is at tho bend below this north-running stretch that the Klondike
River enters from the east, above which, and more or less pai-allel, are
the Indian and Stewart rivers, all famous as draining a region phe-
nomenally rich in gold. Near the upper end of this north-south
course the White River enters in the same direction from the south.
Above this the Yukon resumes its northwest course and maintains it
to Fort Selkirk, which is near the head of navigation. At Fort
Selkirk it splits into two main branches : the Pelly, which drains the
Rocky Mountain regions to the northeast, and the Lewes, which in
several bra,nches drains the region to the southwest and the many
lakes on the eastern side of the Coast Ranges.

The principal tributaries of the Yukon from Fort Selkirk to Fort
Yukon are, on the south side, in descending order. White, Sixtymile,
Fortymile, Mission, Seventymile, and Charlie rivers, and on the north,
from Dawson at the mouth of the Klondike downward, the Chandindu,
Tatonduc, Tahkandit, and Kandik rivers. From Fort Yukon to the
open country near the mouth of the river the longer streams coming
from the southeast are Birch Creek, Beaver, Tanana, and Nowikakat
rivera; from the north come the Dall, Tozikakat, Melozikakat, and
Koyukuk rivei'S, the latter one of the largest tributaries and said to
])e 500 to (iOO miles in length.

The Yukon is generally a broad and muddy stream, fl'^wing with
a current of 3 to 9 miles an hour. Occasionally it runs in a narrow,
rocky canyon cut through lava, or across low mountain ranges, and
such stretches are locally called "ramparts." For the most part,
however, its valley is wide, and the stream often spreads out into

im^»

MAP OP ALASKA, WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEST.

many channels with low wooded islands between, the whole covering
a width said to reach 10 miles in places. Dry spruce is practically
the only fuel availal;)le for steamers along the Yukon, and the supply
is limited and difficult to obtain. Although the river is frozen up
during eight months of the year, from October to June, its importance
as a means of transporting supplies can hardly be overestimated. In
the early years, when the connection between the upi)er and lower
IK)rtions of the river was not absolutely known, the Hudson Bay fur
traders were in the habit of taking their peltry from Fort Selkirk
down to the mouth of the Porcupine and up that stream to the Mac-
kenzie, preferring to make this long and circuitous journey rather
than encounter the difficulties of a more direct route across the moun-
tains to the eastward.

CLIMATIC CONDITIONS.

From the point of view of climatic conditions Alaska may be divided
into three provinces: the southeastern coast strip, the Aleutian region,
and the interior or Yukon region. In the former there is an abun-
<lant rainfall and a temperate climate. The rainfall at Sitka is 60 to
1)5 inches per annuu), and the mean annual temperature is "42°, the
average in winter being 'M° and in summer 55°, a very narrow range.
In the interior the climate is arid and the ranges of temperature are
c^msequently wide. The Aleutian district presents various means
between these extremes. The rainfall of the Yukon district has been
given, necessarily from very imperfect data, as l.'J inches. The tem-
perature is known to have been 112° in the shade at Fort Yukon in
the summer, and ($8° below zero in winter, as extremes, but averages
have not yet been obtained by continuous series of observations. The
livei-s, l)eiug fed mainly by melting snow and ice, are very high in
early summer, and fall during the rest of the year, at times with great
rapidity. The cold, being dry, is not necessjirily difficult to bear for
well-clothed and robust men. Fur clothing and loose non-(Hmducting
foot-wear are desirable for winter travel. Indian snowshoes are pref
erable to the Norwegian. The most favorable months for traveling
are March and April. In May the snow is wet and travel is heavy,
and mosquitoes l)egin to appear. During the summer these swarm in
clouds and render life almost unbearable. They are the most hardy
specimens of the tribe, and during their brief season a brisk wind
furnishes the only relief. Their activity often extends late into
Irosty nights. Some protection in the form of face-covering and
leather gloves is an alwolute necessity. The Indians smear their faces
with a mixture of grease and charcoal, and paddle with a smudge on
a square of turf in the bow of the canoe.

As a result of climatic conditions the coastal regions support a most
bixuriant forest growth, compamble to that of western Oregon and

CLDklATIO CONDITIONS.

Washington. This extends westward as far as Kadiak Island, and
then suddenly stops, the region west of that being practically treeless.
Going into the interior from the coiist, one reaches the upper limit of
timber growth, or the timber-line, as it is popularly called, at 2,300
to 2,500 feet elevation. Within the arid region there is no dense
forest growth. Trees grow along the valleys of the principal streams,
but the species are generally different from the coast growths and of
inferior quality for timber. The rock surface to a considerable height
on the mountain slopes is coveretl with a dense blanket of moss,
beneath which the soil is permanently frozen, thawing only for a few
feet downward in the summer months. The actual depth of frozen
ground has not yet been determined, but there is reason to believe
that it is as much as 100 feet. Such ground can not be broken by
explosives, which simply tear a small hole without shattering the
surrounding mass to any considerable extent. Thus far fire, as it
was used by ancient miners before the introduction of gunpowder,
has proved the most effectual agent in mining.

The following table gives temperature observations, in Fahrenheit
degrees, made by Ogilvie's party at the town of Portymile during the
year December, 1895, to November, 1896.

Lowest temperature . .
Highest temperature .

Dec.

Jan.

Feb.

Mar.

Apr.

May

June

July

Auft.

Sep.

Oct

-SB"

-«8«

-640

-37«

-38»

-60

80»

88»

ar»

R»

1°

sa»

40»

63"

80°

81 »

~ti°

68°

61°

Nov.

-380
28»

Ice in Fortymlle River broke up May 11, 180(1.

Ice in Yulton River broke up May 17, 1896,

and ran thickly until May iW, 1806.

Ice formed on the Yukon Sept. !J8, IWtO,

and broke again, and finally set Nov. S, 1890.

ROUTES TO KLONDIKE.

The following routes to the Klondike gold fields have vome into
general notice, and some are already in practical uhc:

Yukon or all-water route.

Skagway or White I'ass route.

Dyea or Chilkoot W-.m route.

Dalton or Chilkat Pass route.

8tikiiie route.

Taku route.

Iklmouton route.

Copper liiver route.

The Yukon or all-imUr route. — TliiH route is by ocean steamer from
Seattle or Ha* Francisco to St. Miclmel, near the mouth of (lie Yukon;
thence by river steamboat up the Yukon to Dawson. The length of

MAP OF ALASKA, WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

I i

this route is about 4,000 miles, it being nearly 2,700 from Seattle to
St. Michael and about 1,300 up the Yukon to Dawson. Those taking
this route should aim to leave St. Michael early in July, in order to
avoid the delays in upstream progress caused by sandbars at low
stages of water later in the season. The time from Seattle to St.
Michael is about twenty days, and that from St. Michael to Dawson
the same, making about forty days for the trip. Under favorable
weather and circumstances it may be made in less time. The usual
first-class fare is about $150. Though this route is the one over which
commercial companies operating in the Yukon country transport their
goods, it is seldom used by miners who wish to enter in the spring,
since at that season it takes several weeks longer to make the trip by
this route than it does to make it by some of the trails mentioned
below. It is, liowever, highly advantageous for persons unfitted to
rough it on the trails.

The Skagwa}! or White Pass route. — From Seattle to Skagway, a dis-
tance of 1,115 miles, the route is by ocejin stesimer northward along the
coast, and finally up Ijynn Canal. It is practically a still- water route,
being protected from the swells of the ocean by an almost continuous
barrier of densely wooded islands. The trip requires about three and
one-half days. The first-class rate is quoted at $50 ; freight, $1.3 a
ton. Skagway is located on the esist side of Dyea Inlet, a branch of
Lynn Canal. Its population, which is much increased by people who
have l)een unable to get across the trail, is said to be about 8,000.
Dyea is situated 4 miles north of Skagway, west of the mouth of Dyea
Kiver and at the head of Dyea Inlet. The rise and fall of the tide in
this inlet is about 24 feet. At Skagway steamers find good anchorage
within half a mile of the beach, to which freight is taken in lighters
at high tide, which are unloaded Miien the tide recedes. Several
newly built wharves are said to be now in practical use, and the
facilities for laiuliiig cargoes are greatly superior to those at Dyea.
From Skagway the trail leads northeastward up the valley of the
Skagway River, crossing the mountains at White Pass and running
thence norths ard to the head of Lake Bennett, whose waters flow into
the Yukon. The summit of White Pass is 2,400 feet above sea-level,
and its distance fnmi Skagway is 18 miles. For the first 4 or 5 miles
there is a good wagon road, which crosses the river several times by
fold. At high stages of waler, however, freight must be packed
across on foot bri<!ges. Beyond this are long stretches of very miry
and rocky ground, where a loaded man will sink knee-deep in the
nnul. I'liere are also several steep and rough ascenls, of which Por-
cupine Hill is the sharpest. The last 2 miles before reaching the
summit is a stendy, hard climb, but presents no dill's or prciupices.
Many horses have been killed or hnve died on this trail. Seventy-
live to 100 pounds make a good load for the ordinary packer. From

ROUTES TO KLONDIKE.

the summit to Lake Bennett, 17 miles, the trail improves, although
still bad. It is for the most part gradually downhill, over an undula-
ting, rocky surface. The timber-line is reached again at The Meadows,
about 5 miles beyond the pass, which is the ordinary camping- place.
The trail passes the two small lakes known as Summit and Middle
lakes, on which ferriage may be secured when the water is not frozen.
Midway between the latter and Lake Lindeman, about 3 miles before
reaching Lake Bennett, the Canadian custom-house officials have put
up a large log cabin, which is used as a place of shelter by those cross-
ing the trail. At this point a trail branches off to the right down to
Tooshhie Lake ; but as there are 7 miles of impassable river between
Tooshhie and Tagish lakes, travelers bound for the Yukon are warned
from taking this route. At the head of Lake Bennett the Skagway
joins the Chilkoot trail. The Skagway trail is somewhat longer than
that over the Chilkoot Pass, but the pass is much loMer. It requires,
however, considerable improvement in bad and swampy places. This
route has been recently recommended by the United States Quarter-
master's Department of Puget Sound.

The Dyea or ChilJcoot Pass route. — This is the old trail used by the
Indians for generations, and until a year ago was practically the only
route followed by miners and prospectors who entered the interior.
It is the shortest route to the headwaters of the Yukon.

Dyea (or Taiya) is ihe Indian word meaning pack or load. Owing
to the extensive shoals at the head of Dyea Inlet the conditions for
anchorage and discharging cargoes from ocean vessels are less favor-
able than at Skagway. They are either unloaded by means of lighters
or put upon a rocky point about a mile from the beach, whence they
are hauled off in wagons. Dyea trail runs northeastward up the
Dyea liiver and across the Chilkoot I'ass, at an elevation of 3,500
feet, to the head of Lake Lindeman, a total distance of 28i miles.
The summit is 13 miles from Dyea, the first (>i miles following a com-
paratively open valley in which there is a good wagon road. Owing
to the windings of the stream within the wallH of the valley, the river
must be crossed several times, by fords in summer, by ferries in
spring when the water is deep. The trail then enters a narrow can-
yon with steep, rocky walls, which it follows to Sheep Camp, at timber-
line, 44 miles further on. Through the canyon the trail is rougher,
but horses have been successfully used for several years in j)ai'kiug to
Sheep Camp. Good campingiihu'es are found all along the route
from Dyea to Sheep Camp, and at several points refreshments may bo
obtained. Sheep C'amp is the last camping-place on the west side of
the range, as from there on there is no timber or fuel until Deep Lake,
on the other slope, 12 miles distant, is reached. From Sheep Camp
to Scales, whore pat^ks are weighed by the Canadian authorities, a
distance of 'M miles, the rise is about 1,.S00 feet. The trail is free

MAP OF ALASKA, WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

from mud, and traveling is not difficult, though in places the ground
is covered with bowlders. From Scales to the summit of the pass the
ground rises 1,000 feet in a distance of about half a mile, and masses
of broken rock or talus make the climb very difficult, and impossi-
ble for pack animals. The building of an aerial or wire tiumway,
with buckets carrying 400 pounds of freight, has been contemplated
for this portion of the route. From the summit of Chilkoot Pass to
Lake Lindeman, a distance of ir>i miles, the trail descends first very
steeply to a small lake called Crater Lake, and thence more gradually
along the drainageway of a chain of lakes known as Long, Canyon,
and Deep lakes, which are connected with one another and finally w ith
Lake Lindeman by small streams. Till late in spring the whole of
this drainageway is frozen over, and one travels from the summit to
Lake Lindeman by sled. On either side of the pass, especially on the
south, snow sometimes accumulates to a depth of 50 or 00 feet, form-
ing a sort of n6v6 of limited extent. Late in the season, when the
draiuagci is open, a ferry sometimes plies on Long Lake, a distance
of 4 miles. The rate for psicking from Dyea to Lake Lindeman is
40 cents a pound, and rates are proportional for intermediate points.
"Wheu the ice has broken up, Lake Lindeman may be traversed by
ferry, a distjince of 4J miles, at $2 a passenger. From the foot of
Lake Lindeman there is portage past the rapids to the head of Lake
Bennett, where the Dyea and Skiii;\vay trails meet.

From the head of Lake Bennett to Dawson, 548 miles, there is a
continuous waterway through lakes and rivers, which may be fol-
lowed in summer by boat and in winter (m the ice. Long stretches
are navigjible by light- draught steamers. Boats may be procured
or built at the head of the lake, but in some respecits the most advan-
tageous method is to start early enough to travel on the ice Jis far
as the foot of Lake Lebarge, where timber for boat-building is
abundant, as iu this way the dangerous passage of the White Horse
Rapids is avoided. Lake Bennett is 2(5 miles in length, narrow and
cauyou-liko iu form, and deep at the lower end. Fitteen miles below
the bend, where the southwest arm comes in, strong winds often pre-
vail, producing a rough sea that is dangerous for boats, and parties
are often storm-bound there IVu- several days. A sluggish stream 2J
miles long an<l often not more than IJ feet deep, known as Caribou
Crossing, extentls from the foot of r^ake Bennett to Tagish Lake.
Thencte there is clear sailing 1S> miles down Tagish Lake and 5 miles
along a river deep enough for ordinary river steamers to IMai'sh or
Mud liSike. The Ciinadiitn ciistonis officers and mounted police are
stationed on tills river U miles below Tagish Lake. IMarsli Lake is
It) miles long and empties into Fiftymile Wiver, whose current aver-
ages .i to 4 miles iin hour. About 25 miles down, the river enters
Miles Canyon, a chasm aboiit 100 feet wide and five-eighths of a mile

I ;

r/ 1 uuiLvJu ,ij*»ii

ROUTES TO KLONDIKE.

long, between perpendicular walls of basalt 80 to 100 feet high. The
swift, turbulent current carries a boat through this canyon in about
three minutes. For a fair-sized boat, not too heavily loaded, which
is kept under steerageway by one or more good oarsmeu and follows
the middle of the stream, so as not to be dashed against the steep
rocks on either side, the passage is quite practicable. At the foot of
the canyon one must keep to the left until the heavy swells are passetl,
then turn sharply to the right and land on the east or right bank. A
safer course, which is followed by many, is to portage one's load along
the right side of the canyon, over a hill about 200 feet high, and run
the boat through empty.

Three- eighths of a mile below this canyon are rapids ;ibout half a
mile long, which, though very rough, are not dangerous. A hall mile
below these are the WTiite Horse Eapids, the most dangerous on
the whole river. They are about one-third of a mile long and are
confined between low basaltic walls. Near their foot the walls close
together, forming a chasm only 30 yards wide, while the bed of the
stream drops suddenly, so that the river rushes wildly through, leap-
ing and foaming in a cataract. Many boats have passed successfully
through, but others have been swamped, with loss of outfits ami some-
times of life. The safer plan is to portage around the rapids and let
the boat down by line. The portage is on the west shore, but on
either side a tramway could be coustructeil without great ditliculty.

Lake Lebarge, which is (50 miles below the White Hoi-se Rapids, is
81 miles long and easily navigable by steamers. There is abundant
good timber at its foot. The river below Lake Lebarge, Jis far Jis Fort
Selkirk, is known jis the Lewes, and is also navigable for 160 miles,
tlown to the Five Finger liapids. Here a rock of conglomerate rises
up from the river bottom, forming several islands and backing up the
river a foot or two, so as to produce a strong swell below. Steep
cliffs of the same rock on either bank render a portage at this point
impracticable. With proper steer.igeway and care, however, an ordi-
nary boat may run the rapids safely. The right or cjist 8i<le is
foUoweil by most Yukon travelers, but Ogilvie, of the Canadian
Survey, f; actual experience pronounces the channel along the
west bank as also piussable. For (J miles below the l<^ve Finger
Rapids the current is swift, and then occur the Rink Rapids, which
extend halfway across the river from the western bank, producing a
decitled riftle. On the east si«lc, however, the water is comparatively
smooth and safe. Below this the river is practically free from rapids
and navigation is uninipe<le<l. Fort Selkirk, where the Pelly and
Lewes unite to form the Yukon, is (55 miles below. Thence it is about
l>5 miles to the mouth of White River, 10 miles further to the mouth
of the Stewart, thence li2 miles to Slxtymile River, and 4r> nnles
further to Dawson, at the mouth of the Klondike.

MAP OF ALASKA, WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

ii:

11:

i 1
i I

I '

Ii!

Ballon or Chilkat Pass route. — ^This is an overland route following a
direct course, more or less independent of waterways, from the head
of Chilkat Inlet to Fort Selkirk. It has been used by J. Dal ton, a
trader, for some time as a pack-train route and for driving in cattle.
But little is definitely known of its geography. It ascends first the
Chilkat and Klahoela rivers, crossing the paas in 45 miles at an ele-
vation of 3,000 feet and thence descending into the drainage of the
Tahkeena River at Lake Arkell. From Lake Arkell the trail is said
to pass over an undulating plain, well timbered in the valleys and
with grass on the slopes. The distances from the head of the inlet
are given as 75 miles to the watershed and 100 miles to Dalton's
trading-post. From there to the Pelly the distance is 200 miles, or
300 miles in all to the Pelly, and 350 to 400 to Fort Selkirk.

The Stikine route. — By this route one travels by boat from Fort
Wrangell 150 miles up the Stikine River to Telegraph Creek, and
thence, a little to the west of north, 150 miles to the head of Teslin
Lake. The ascent of the Stikine River is tedious and sometimes
dangerous, the current being swift and rapids numerous. It is, how-
ever, the route that was followed in former days by miners going to
the Cassiar district. From Telegraph Creek to Teslin Lake the trail
is said to pass through a gently undulating and well-timbered country
which presents no obstacles to the building of a railroad. Lake
Teslin is said to be about 80 miles long and bounded on both sides by
high mountains. From its foot down to the Lewes runs the Teslin
(or Hootalinqua) River, which is navigable except for two small
rapids, one near its head, the other further down. In its lower course
the Teslin spreads out into many channels, occupying a total width
of 2 or more miles. This route appears promising, but is as yet only
prospective.

The Taku route. — This route ascends the Tak\i Inlet and River and
crosses directly to Lake Teslin or Aklen, a distance of 185 miles from
Juneau. Thence it is identical with the Stikine route. By this route
one travels by steamer from Juneau 18 miles up the Taku Inlet to the
foot of a large glacier, which is often very dangerous to boats, even at
a distance of several miles, by reason of the ice masses that brejik o^"
from it ; then by boat (JO miles up the Taku River to the head of
p^noe navigation. The portage which follows is for the first 20 miles
through the canyon-like valley of an eastern branch, then for 50 miles
in broad valleys of the upper Taku, 3,500 to 5,000 feet above sesi-level.
For the last 15 miles the route is in the densely wooded valleys of
Teslin Lake, among many small ponds. This route is said to be not
impracticable for a railroad, and a charter for one has already been
granted by the Canadian Government. Its merits, however, have not
yet been thoroughly tested. Both tais and the Stikine route have the
undoubted advantage of avoiding the dangerous White Horse Rapids.

ROUTES TO KLONDIKE.

iga

The Edmonton or inland Canadian route. — ^By this route one travels
by the Canadian Pacific Eailway to Calgary and thence by branch
road to Edmonton, on the Saskatchewan Biver. From Edmonton
there are 40 miles of staging to Athabasca Landing, on the Athabasca
River, and thence a canoe journey of 1,850 miles down the Athabasca,
SIp' e, and Mackenzie rivers to Fort McPherson. The only portage of
{a.\y importance is one of 16 miles at Smith Sound, where the Hudson
Bay Company has a tramway. This has been the regularly traveled
route of the employees of the Hudson Bay Company for nearly a
century; aud the canoe trip to Fort McPherson is made in about sixty
days. From Fort McPherson one must ascend the Peel River south-
eastward, and then travel several hundred miles through an unknown
country between Peel River and the Klondike, packing one's outfit.
Though advantageous for mining districts along Peel River, this
route can hardly be recommended at present to anyone bound for the
Klondike region.

The Copper River route. — This is only a proposed route, and as yet
presents little to recommend it. It would strike inland from near the
mouth of the Copper River and follow a general northeasterly course
toward the Klondike, thus crossing a great mountain range whose
rough topography and many glaciers that fill the valleys and passes
render general travel difficult if not impracticable. Orca, the only
settlement on the coast nearby, is 50 miles beyond the mouth of Copper
River and 700 miles from Sitka. In 1897 it had a population of 22
whites. It is the first post-office west of Sitka. During the hist
summer several unsuccessful attempts were made to ascend Copper
River. According to C. W. Hayes, there are impassable rapids
formed by a moraine below the Miles Glacier, over which the river
descends about 100 feet ; there are also rapids lower down at the Childs
Glacier, and the broad stretch of river between is rendered dangerous
for navigation by floating ice. According to reports of natives, con-
firmed by Lieutenant Allen, who crossed over to the Tanana in 1885,
the better way is to start inland from Valdes Inlet, on Prince William
Sound, and, crossing the Valdes Glacier, strike Copper River 180
miles above its mouth, thus avoiding the gorge and the most danger-
ous rapids. The best time to enter the region is in .lannary or Feb-
ruary, when the snow filling the crevsisses in the glacier has be<!ome
packed ; at any other time it is difficult and dangerous to cross. From
the Copper River basin an advisable route would seem to be over the
Scolai Pass and down White River; but from observations made by
Hayes it appears that the pass, which has an elevation of over 5,000
feet, is occupied by a glacier 300 to 400 feet thick, and that White
River abounds in nipids too rough for a loaded boat. I. C. Russell,
who visited the IMount iit. Elias region in 1890 and 1891, reports a
mountainous region to the northward occupied by huge gliiciers.

ilijll

MAP OF ALASKA, WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

GEOLOGICAL SKETCH.

In mining for gold man reverses the order of the natural processes
which have produced such concentrations of this and other metals in
the earth's crust as can be worked by him at a profit. In the solid
rocks the useful metals were first concentiated in interstitial spaces,
generally cracks or fissures, where they filled the vaciint spaces and
sometimes impregnated or replaced to a certain extent the adjoining
rock. Such concentrations constitute original ore deposits. In these
the metallic minerals are generally accompanied by some earthy min-
erals ; and as, in the case of gold deposits, this earthy mineral is nearly
always quartz and the most common place of deposit is a vein or
fissure, the term quarts vein has come to be almost universally used
among miuiug men to designate original deposits of gold-bearing ores,
even when the spaces filled were not strictly fissure veins. This
generic use of the term quartz vein will be followed in the succeeding
pages.

In the ordinary processes of nature, after rocks have been formed
and consolidated they are folded, t!rushed, and lifted up into mountain
ranges, and then worn down and distintegrated by cold, heat, rain,
and other destructive agencies, and finally transported by running
water and rearrai ;;ed and distributed in river valleys or on beaches.
During this transportation and rearrangement the heavy particles in
the detrital material, or gravels, naturally settle to the bottom in the
valleys or on the beaches ; hence, M'here these detrital materials come
from the wearing down of rocks containing gold deposits there results
a concentration of the gold at favorable points, and a later class of
deposit is formed, which is called by the generic name placer.

In placer deposits, where nature has already done part of the work
of separating the gold from its matrix, man finds the readiest remuner-
ation for his labor, but in seanihiug for deposits of this character he
must be guided by such knowledge as is attainable with regsird to the
source of the concentrated gold. Although very finely divided gold
may be transported long distances in the sands of large ri\ ers and may
settle in considerable quantities at favorable localities, the coai-ser
gold, which yields tlie greatest remuneration, is rarely carried far;
hence the richest deposits must be sought near the source of the gold.
In the following statement of what is known with regard to the eco-
nomic resources of Aljiska, therefore, there will fii-st be given such
ideas as may be deduced from the incomplete observations that have
been made in this vast region with regard to its geological structure
and the probable position and extent of the rocks containing the
original deposits of gold, and then a description of its various forms
of placer deposits.

GEOLOGICAL SKETCH.

PHTSICAIi DESCRIPTION.

Alaska may be divided topograph ically into a coastal and an
interior region. The international boundary between American and
Canadian territory has no relation to the physical structure of the
region; hence, in this description that portion of British Columbia
which lies opposite the Alexander Archipelago and the coastal strip
of American territory southeast of Mount St. Elias will be considered
as part of the general province of Alaska. The known portions of
the interior region, which lie mainly south of the Arctic Circle, belong
to the drainage system of the Yukon River. This strejim with its
various tributaries drains the northwestern portion of the cordilleran
system included between the cx)a8t aud the Mackenzie River Valley,
which are about 700 miles apart and approximately parallel. The
Mackenzie River flows from Great Slave Lake into the Arctic Ocean.
The Yukon has a general northwest course for about 700 miles
(neglecting curves), and then, at its Junction with the Porcupine,
bends abruptly to the southwest, reaching Bering Sea at a distance of
about 050 miles in a straight line from the bend. Its earlier or north-
west course, which is also that of many of its principal tributaries, is
evidently dependent upon the older fejitures of the mountain structure,
but the change to a direction transverse to this may have been deter-
mined in a comparatively recent geological period. To one tracing
the broader features of physical structure northwestward from the
United States through British Columbia, it would seem that the
mountainous region between the Yukon aud the Mackenzie represents
the Rocky Mountains proper, and the Alexander Archipelago and
adjoining coast slopes the Coast Ranges. The basin of the Upper-
Yukon (the river above the great bend) would then be the represent-
ative of the Great Basin region in the United Sbites, since north of the
49th parallel the uplift of the Sierra Xe\ a<la has merged with that of
the Coast Ranges into one general system.

The Yukon River is characterized by a great volume of water,
"^hich carries with it large quantities of detrital material that in the
lower reaches forms considerable bars and islands. Its valleys are
alternately A'^ery broad aud very narrow. The broad stretches often
contain nuxlern lakes, or, Jis the stratified gravels on the sides show,
occupy ancient lake biisins, now drained; in the narrow stretches the
river is frequently confined within vertical canyon walls, in which it
is sometimes cutting through transvei-se mountain ranges, sometimes
through fields of lava, generally basaltic, that have spread across its
track. The greatest of the open valleys is known as the Yukon Flats,
which include the region of the great bend, commencing near Circle
City. Much of the Lower Yukon runs also through more or less open
valleys, low table-lands, or mesa regions, whose surface is occupied
by nearly horizontal beds of Tertiary or even more recent age. At

PMmM

MAP OF ALASKA, WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

places it cuts down through these and exposes older rocks forming
parts of partially submerged mountain ranges, as the so-called Lower
Bamparts.

Little is known of the structure of the coastal region beyond the
immediate coast-line except the narrow strip of territory known as
Southeastern Alaska. The mountainous islands of the Alexander
Archipelago are supposed to constitute part of the range which cul-
minates in Mount St. Elias and beyond splits into two ranges, one
trending westward with the bend of the coast, the other continuing in
a northwesterly direction and probably forming the southern water-
shed of the Tanana Eiver. The Coast Bange proper is a broad elevated
belt with many scattered peaks, but not differentiated into continuous
ranges. Ocean ward it presents an abrupt, rugged front, cut by fiord-
like valleys. To the east is a plateau-like region which descends
gradually to the north from an elevation of 5,000 feet in the upper
lake region to 3,000 feet in the lower Lewes and Pelly river valleys.
The river valleys in this stretch often lie 2,000 to 2,500 feet below the
general plateau level.

The coastal belt of southeastern Alaska and westward to Kadiak
Island has the abundant precipitation and consequent luxuriant forest
growth which characterize the northwest coast regions as far south as
Puget Sound, and hence the rock surface is deeply covered and the
imderlying rocks are decayed so as to make prospecting extremely
laborious. But west of Kadiak Island, along the coast, there is no
timber.

In the interior region the precipitation is comparatively slight, and
considerable portions are above or north of the limits of timber
growth. The precipitation is, however, chietiy in the form of snow,
and the soil is frozen for a large portion of the year, so that there is
comparatively little rock decay. Where there is no timber the
surface is generally covered with an abundant growth of moss. This,
wherever the surface material is sufficiently compact to become
impervious to water by freezing, produces large areas of swampy
tracts, even on sloping ground, which, except in the glaciated regions
or when cut through by large streams, obscure the rock surface and
render difficult the work of the prospector.

It is not perhaps generally known that the theory of an arctic ice
sheet extending outward from the polar regions has been proved by
investigations of recent years to be fallacious. Many persons, includ-
ing some who might be supposed to speak with scientific authority,
have committed the error of ascribing to the placer deposits of the
Yukon a glacial origin. It is now known that the great continental
glaciers of former times spread out in every direction from certain
elevated regions peculiarly subject to great accumulaticns ot ice and
enow, and that one such centered in the mountains of British Columbia

ORIGINAL DEPOSITS, OR QUARTZ VEINS.

between latitudes 53° and 59° N. and had a northwestward as well
as a southward movement from that central region. The limit of the
extent of this northward-moving ice sheet was readily recognized by
the various geologists who have visited the region in recent times, and
is roughly defined as crossing the Lewes Eiver just above the mouth
of the Big Salmon, and the White Eiver near the Donjek, or follow-
ing approximately the 62d parallel, so that the Yukon Basin below
these points has not been affected by any general glaciation.

ORIGINAL DEPOSITS, OR QUARTZ VEINS.
COASTAL REGION.

At present, so far as known, it is only in the coastal region that
deep mining is being carried on in gold-bearing veins. Here it has
become a well-established industry, and many large quartz mills are
running on the ore extracted from these veins. The principal deposits
are found in a belt somewhat over 100 miles in length on the seaward
slope of the mainland, reaching from Sumdum on the southeast past
Juneau to Berners Bay near Seward on the northwest. This belt may
be also considered to include the deposits on the shoreward side of
Admiralty and other islands. A second belt, further west, is repre-
sented by the deposits on the western side of Baranof Island, not far
from Sitka. The ores, though not always exceptionally rich, are
worked at a good profit because of the natural facilities of the region
for cheap reduction. The most notable instance of this is the great
Alaska-Treadwell mine, which h^s extracted over seven million dol-
lars' worth of gold from an ore carrying $3.20 a ton, which is workeil
at an average cost of $1.35. Such conditions can not be expected to
obtain in the interior.

These deposits occur in metamorphic slates, diabases, and gnin-
ites, all similar to the rocks of the auriferous belt of California, a
probably, like those, they are of post-Jurassic age. Owing to the
dense covering of living and fallen forest trees in this region, pros-
pecting is extremely difficult, and it is probable that future explora-
tion will prove the extent of these gold belts to be much greater than
at present appears. The gold-bearing beach sands from Lituya Bay
to Yakutat Bay along the west foot of the St. Elias Eange, and the
placers at 1 he head of Cook Inlet, around Turnagain Arm and on the
Kaknu Eirer, may have been derived from the wearing down of
rocks of similar age and composition on the Kenai Peninsula.

At Uyak Bay, on Kadiak Island, gold deposits in slates are being
worked, and the gold-bearing beach sands of the western end of that
island and at Portage Bay and the Ayakulik Eiver on the neighboring
mainland are apparently derived from metamorphic slates associated
with granite, so that it is possible that these more recent gold-bearing
rocks extend that far westward. On Unga Island, of the Shumagin

MAP OF ALASKA, WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

group, still further west, gold occurs in eruptive andesites of Tertiary
age, and several mines have been opened on these deposits, the most
important of which is the Apollo, one of the most successful in the
province. As the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands are
largely made up of recent eruptive rocks, this is an important indi-
cation, showing the possibility of the dccurrence of valuable deposits
in such rocks. Some mining and prospecting has already been done
on the island of Unalaska, at the extreme point of the peninsula.

INTERIOK REGION.

In the Yukon Basin the gold, so far as known at present, is derived
from a much older series of rocks, for the gold-bearing slates of the
coastal region have not yet been recognized there. While the exact
age of these gold-bearing rocks has not yet been determined, they are
known to be older than the limestones supposed to represent the
Carboniferous and Devonian formations of the cordilleran system ;
hence they are probably pre- Paleozoic, and in part are possibly as old
as the Archean. The grounds for assuming this derivation are that
these rocks contain abundant auriferous quartz veins, and that the
richest placers thus far discovered are so situated that they must have
been derived from them. These rocks are classified by Spurr as
follows, commencing at the base :

Basal granite- schist. — This, so far as known, is the fundamental rock
formation of the region. The granite has characteristically a some-
what schistose or gneissic structure, thus showing evidence of having
been subjected to dynamic action or intense compression, and it may
pass into a gneiss, or even a mica-schist, where this action has been
most energetic. On the other hand, it is sometimes massive, showing
no parallel structure planes, and then is with difficulty distinguishable
from the massive younger granites, which are also of frequent occur-
rence in the region in the form of dikes and intrusive masses cutting
across older rocks. As distinguished from the granites of the coastal
region, which are intrusive, these older granites are generally of
reddish color and crumbly nature, while the later ones are dark gray
from the abundance of hornblende as a constituent mineral.

Birch Creek series. — Resting upon the fundamental granite is a series
of rocks, roughly estimated as possibly 25,000 feet in thickness, named
the Birch Creek series, from the place of their typical occurrence.
They consist mainly of quartzitic rocks, generally thin bedded or
schistose, so that they pass into mica-schists ; in some phices they
contain carbonaceous matter and develop graphitic schists. There are
also bands which probably originated iis intrusive rocks but which by
compression have become schistose like the other members. These
rocks have abundant quartz veins ; they are generally parallel to the
schistosity or bedding, small, and not persistent, but some cross the

ORIGINAL DEPOSITg, OR QUARTZ VEINS.

bedding and are then wider. They carry gold with abundant pyrites,
and sometimes galena. They are often broken and faulted.

Fortymile series. — Younger than the Birch Creek series, but in
general closely associated therewith, is another thick series of rocks,
called the Fortymile series because of their development on Fortymile
Creek. They are characterized by alternations of beils of marble,
from a few inches up to 50 feet in thickness, with quartzitic and other
schists, which may be micaceous, hornblendic, or gjirnetiferous, and
sometimes graphitic. They are traversed by abundant dikes of
eruptive rock, mostly granites and diorites. Two sets of quattz veins
are developed in these rocks : (1) an older set, which are generally
parallel to the schistosity or lamination, like those in the Birch Creek
series, and like them are broken by later movements and carry pyrite
and occasionally galena ; (2) a set of larger veins, which form an
apparent transition from dikes of aplite, a rock consisting of quartz
and feldspar. They cut across the bedding and are not disturbed by
later rock movements, hence are younger in age.

Rampart series. — This still later series is primarily distinguished
from the preceding by the darker color of its rocks, which are dark
green when fresh and become a dark red by weathering. They consist
largely of basic eruptive materials, beds of diabase and tuftaceous
sediments, with hard green shales and some limestones containing
glauconite, or green silicate of iron. They also contain novaculites, or
fine-grained quartzitic slates, and jasperoids, or iron-stained quartzose
rocks. Serpentine and chlorite, noticeable by their softness and green
color, are frequent alteration products. These rocks also contain a
few quartz and calcite veins, which are generally developed along
shear zones, or places where by rock movement and compression a
series of closely appressed parallel fractures are developed. The basic
character of these rocks and their large content of pyrite seem favor-
able to the concentration of ore deposits; they present, moreover,
certain analogies, both in composition and in geologic position, with
the copper-bearing rocks of Lake Superior. But the observed veins
are younger than the joints and shear planes, which were probably
produced by the rock movements that crushed the veins of the older
series, and assays of their ores have as yet shown but insignificant
amounts of gold and silver. These veins, as well as those in the
granite, are, moreover, much less abundant than those in the Birch
Creek and Fortymile series ; hence it is thought that the latter are
probably the principal source of gold in the placers.

The younger rock series noted are, briefly, the following :

Tahkandit series. — This consists of limestones, sometimes white and
crystalline, generally green or black, alternating with ^^ 'es. In
certain localities, notably on the Tahkandit River, it has Cf ^glomerates
carrying greenish pebbles supposed to be derived from the rocks of

MAP OF ALASKA, WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

'I i

the Eampart series. In the beds of this series have been found fossils
of Carboniferous age and plants of Devonian aspect.

Mission Creek series. — Later than the Tahkandit series, but, like it,
not very well defined, is the Mission Creek series, consisting of shales
and thin-bedded limestones with gray sandstones. Locally there are
thin beds of impure lignite and at the base a conglomerate ("cement
rock" of the miners) containing pebbles not completely rounded
derived from older rocks in the neighborhood, which sometimes car-
ries gold. The beds of this series are sometimes altered and sharply
upturned and folded, but generally have a rather fresh appearance.
In the neighborhood of shear zones they are impregnated with pyrite
and carry small quartz veins. The limited exploration of these rocks
has developed no important deposits of mineral. The age of the beds
is as yet uncertain, but they are in part as late as Cretaceous.

Kenai series. — Next above the Mission Creek rocks, and not always
readily distinguishable from them, is a great thickness of rather
loosely consolidated conglomerates, shales, and sandstones, generally
greenish in color, which are the coal-bearing rocks of the region; they
everywhere contain plant remains, and rest unconformably upon the
older rocks. They have, however, been folded to a certain extent,
and stand upturned at angles of 20° to 60°. They are supposed to he
of Eocene Tertiary age.

Later Tertiarii beds. — Other and more recent Tertiary beds have
been observed, generally in the more open country of the Lower Yukon,
which have little economic importance, though they sometimes con-
tain thin lignitic seams. They are variously known from the localities
M'here they hiive been observed, as the Nulato sandstones and the
Twelvemile and Ponuipine beds, the two last named being assumed to
belong to the same series.

The more recent formations, silts and gravels, will be considered
under the heading ''Detrital or placer deposits."

DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD-BKABINO ROCK FORMATIONS,

The most definite facts with regard to the occurrence of the gold-
bearing formations, the Birch Creek, Forlymile, and Eampart series
described above, were obtained by the reconnaissance made by mem-
bers of the United States Geological Survey in the summer of 1896,
under the charge of J. E. Spurr, in the American portion of the
Yukon district, and the exposures of these rocks as shown on the
maps of his report have been indicated in colors on the accompanying
map. Data gathered by earlier geologists, notably those of the
Canadian Survey and of C. W. Hayes ami I. C. Russell of the United
States Geologiciil Survey, have provided suggestious as to the extent
of these rocks in outside areiis,]but the reader need only bear in mind
the enormous area, the diflflculties of exploration, and the want of

DISTEIBUnON OF GOLD-BEARrNG .t'ORMATIONS.

accurate maps of the region, to realize that generalization must as yet
be very tentative and liable to future change.

As shown by the map, the belt in which these rocks have been
found extends about 600 miles in a general northwest-southeast
direction, but there are indications that the actual extent of these
exposures may be twice as great.

The best-known exposures of these rocks occur along the northeast-
ern flanks of a broad belt of fundamental granii. h and crystalline
schists which apparently form the central nucleus or backbone upon
which they rest. This belt is known in a general way to extend up
the Tanana River from near its mouth southeastward across the V/hite
River below the Donjek. In the latter region 0. W. Hayes reports
quartzites and limestones resembling the Birch Creek and Fortymile
series on the southern flanks of the granite, but the width of the belt,
and whether there is any considerable extent of the gold-bearing for-
mations along its southern flanks, is us yet unknown. It may not
improbably extend into the high range south of Tanana of which
Mount McKinley is the culminating point and in which the Kusko-
kwim and Sushitna rivers of western Alaska take their rise, for from
the reports of Moravian missionaries and of the traveler Dickey it
appeai-s that gold occurs in the sands of esich of these streams. To
the westward the granite backbone appears to pitch gently downward,
as its surface area narrows, and no exposures are known west of the
Yukon River. It is probably not a continuous mass of granite on the
surface, but contains smaller areas of the later ro(!'>;s folded in with it.
East of the international boundary the areji in which the granite
occurs apparently widens, but its exposures are less continuous, the
ovei'lying rocks not yet having been worn away. One granitic axis
appears to extend eastward fi'om the Fortymile district through the
Klondike region in a nearly east- west direction, which is that of the
prevailing strike of th(; f-,edimeuUiry rocks. The Canadian geologists
report a second granite axis on the Desise River just below Deji«e
Lake, which may belong to the older granites, though they do not
make the same distinction tliat .Spurr does between the older gniuites
and the later intrusive rocks.

Rocks of the various gold bearing series above the granite are
reported at the following locnlities : Their ttrst appearance, to one
siscending the Yukon from the sea, is near the mouth of the Nowikakat.
From here up to the Tanana Jtiver, rocks of the Birch Creek series
outcrop frequently along t le river, when not concealed by Tertiary
sandstones and conglomerates, and the range of low mountjiins on the
north side und parallel to the river is probably formed of these and
Fortymile rocks. About .'{ miles above the mouth of the T.iuana,
granite is exposed on an island in the Yukon, and 12 miles higher
calc4ireouH quartzitic schists of the Fortymile series ai)pe}ir under the

ilAP OF ALASKA, WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

111!'!'

Tertiary conglomerates. From the mouth of the Tanana up to Fort
Hamlin, at the lower end of the Yukon Flats, the river runs in a
canyon-like channel, known as the Lower Ramparts, cut through a
low range of mountjiins which consist principally of the dark greenish
and reddish rocks of the Eampart series, except where these are
burie<l under Tertiary conglomerates. The latter rocks occur imme-
diately above the exposures of Fortymile rocks, and again from
My nook Creek up beyond the mouth of Hess Creek. Higher up on
these streams the Rampart rocks come to the surface, and the Forty-
mile rocks are supposed to be uncovered at their very heads. Between
the two areas of Tertiary rocks he Rampart nujks occupy a belt 15 to
20 miles wide along the river, and are cut l)y great dikes of intrusive
granite.

From Fort Handin up to near Circle City, a distance, neglecting
curves, of about 200 miles, the river Hows througli a perfectly flat
region covered by fine siltf and gravels, known as the Yukon Flats,
in which n© outcrops of st>iid rock have been observed. In the Birch
Creek district, around the headwaters of Birch Creek and southwest
of Circle City, the Birch Creek series occupy a broad area; their
general strike is east and west, curving at either end to the northward,
and the prevailing dip is between 5° and oO° to the south. There is,
however, evidence of a northern dip as well, and the Fortymile schists
and marbles rest upon them along the trail to Circle City. Marbles,
probably beloi ging to the Fortymile series, are also reported in the
hills between Birch Creek nnd the Tanana to the south ard.

At the crossing of Birch C reek by the trail from Circle City, and
along the Yukim River for 'M) or 40 miles above the Yukon Flats,
rocks with the characteristic dark (coloring of the Rampart series are
exposed. From these up to the mouth of INIission Creek rocks of the
Tahkandit, jNIission Creek, and Kenai series occnjjy the banks of the
river. On iMIssicm Crock itself only these later formations are found,
but the gold in the gravels is supposed to come from tlie conghmier-
ates ('^cement rock") of the IMission Creek series, wiiich contain peb-
bles of the older rocks. On American Creek, tlu! main branch of
IMission Creek which conu'S in from the south, the (hirk roc^ks, shales,
limestones, and luH'aceous beds wliich tbrm the bed-rock are supposed
to belong to the l{anii)arl seri«'s, which also occur along the Yukon
River fnuu 5 to 10 miles above Missioi; (U-eek to vvithin 25 miles of
the nu)uth of 1^'ortymile Creek. Above (his to sonio distance above
Fortymile C5reek the river runs in beds of the Mission (!reek series.

It is in the Fortymile district and the adjoining mining district on
tributaries of Sixtymile Creek thai lh(> relations of (lie dillerent gold-
bearing series are IteM seen. Here i\\mv. is an east west axis or back-
bone running ])arallel to the upper part of Fortymile Creek and along
the diviile between it ami Hix(ymile Creek, wi(h quartzite-schists of

CANADIAN TERRITORY.

the Birch Creek series resting immediately on it both to the north and
to the south. Above these on either side are the marbles and alter-
nating schists of the Fortymile series. Fortymile Creek below the
forks runs for a considerable part of its course along the junction
between these two series, on the northern flank of the anticline. Dikes
of various eruptive rocks, including intrusive granite, are very abun-
dant, especially on the South Fork. On the upper part of this fork
are green tuffs and slates of the Kampart series, overlain unconform-
ably by conglomerates, sandstones, and coaly shales of the Mission
Creek series. Both the South Fork and Svxtymile Creek are sup-
posed to head in a backbone of granite around Sixtymile Butte, which
is surrounded by quartzite-schists of the Birch Creek series. These
regions lie partly in American, partly in Canadian territory.

CANADIAN TERRITORY.

The Canadian area has not been studied by American geologists,
except in wayside observation along su(!h routes of travel as necessarily
lay through it. The Canadian geologists, on the other hand, did not
in their earlier and published observations recognize any subdivisions
in the older rocks such Jis have been made by Spurr. Hence it is not
possible to attempt even a proximate outline of the Canadian gold-
bearing rock formations. General geological data and local discoveries
of gold-bearing gravels indicate that the gold-bearing areji is very
large, and may be roughly defined as reaching from Dease River to
the boundary, with a width ot 200 to MOO miles or more. The recent
enormously rich dis(!o\eries have, however, been (confined to a more
limited area around the Klondike and Stewart River districts, on er
which it has been jiossible to extend, with a reasonable degree of
probability, the colors indicated on the map for adjoining American
areas. Thus it is assumed that the east-west uplift of fundamental
granite and overlying rocks extends eastward into the Klimdike dis-
trict, and that a se(!on(l uplift in a south ejisterly direction extends
from upper l^'ortymile ('reek toward the valley of Stewart River.

Spurr noted outcrops of the schistose quartzilcs of the Birch Creek
series for a large part of the distance from the mouth of Fortymile
('reek up to the Junction of (he I'elly and the Lewes at Fort Sellvirk;
also granites at various points, in souuj cases schistose like the funda-
mental granite, in others fresh and massive like intrusive granite.
There were also occasional belts of marble belonging to the Fortymile
scries, notal)ly one 5 or (i miles abov«! the mouth of Sixtymile ('reek,
not far IVont tlnit of Slowari IJiver. These observations atVord a rough
section across liic belt (»f crystalline schists mentioned by the Canadian
geologists as stretching eastward and southeastward along the upper
Pelly and adjoining streams and acrovss to the Frances River. Along
the eastern edge of the crystalline belt they also recognized rocks of

- ' I

MAP OB" ALASKA, WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

a general greenish color, made np largely of altered volcanic rocks,
which would answer to the description of the Rampart series. Similar
rocks were also noted at various points on the Lewes above its junction
with the Pelly, notably in the Seminow Hills near the Big Salmon
Eivei , which may represent the development of the Rampart series on
the south flanks of the crystalline belt.

DETRITAL OR PLACER DEPOSITS.
FOSSIL PLACERS.

Intermediate between detrital materials of the present surface and
original deposits in rock-in-place are conglomerate or cement beds,
derive<l from older rocks, ])ut subsequently hardened into a rock mass.
These deposits, where gold-bearing, are generally known as foml
placers. The cement beds of the Black Hills of Wyoming and the
''banket " reefs of the Transvaal are prominent types of such deposits.

Similar formations have been notetl in the Yukon district, but more
study must be given them before one can Judge Avhether they are
likely to prove of gresit economic importance. Basal conglomerates
derived from the wearing down of the older rocks occur in the Mission
Creek and also in the Kenai series. On Xapoleon Creek in the Forty-
mile district a coarse basal conglomerate referred to the for'ier series
consists of materials derived from the Birch Creek, lA)rtymile, and
Rampart series. Tt dips steeply up the valley, and gravels of the
stream that cuts across it are barren above and rich in placer gold
below it, 8ht)\viug that the gohl is derived from this bed.

Steeply dipping conglomerates, thought to belong to the Kenai and
containing abundant pobl)les of rolled quartz and other rocks, occur
at the richest portion of the Koyukuk Valley, about ;{()() miles above
its mouth, and the gold there obtained is supposed to be derived in
great measure from them.

RKCKNT PLACERS.

L'ecent placer deposits may be divided into beach gravels and .stream
gia\els, and the latter may be formed as deposits either from ancient
or from modern streams.

UKACH ORAVKLS.

Auriferous sands have hmg been known to exist along the California
coast, and are found to be quite extensively tleveloped ahmg the (H)a8t
of Alaska, as lias already been briefly indicated. So far as known,
such placers have not yet been worked at a prollt to any considerable
extent, on account of their want of permanence. A siulvlen storm may
so shift the sandl)ars in which the gold is found as to render futile a
great part of tlie labor already clone in preparing to work them.
Fossil placers are in most cases beach deposits, for deposits of any

DETRITAL OR PLACER DEPOSITS.

considerable areal extent miiat necessarily have been spread out by
ocean waters.

ANCIENT STREAM GRAVELS.

The most notable instances of ancient stream beds that have been
profitably worked are the old river beds on the western slopes of the
Sierras in California, where they have been preserved from modern
erosion by being covered by flows of hard lava rocks. Similar lava
flows are not uncommon in the interior of Alaska. They have been
noted on St. Michael Island and at Auvik, near the mouth of the
Yukon ; on the Yukon near the mouth of the Koyukuk, where they
form bluffs 700 feet high; at various points on the Porcupine River;
on Chicken and Xapoleon creeks, in the upper part of Fortymile dis-
trict; near the junction of the Pelly with the Lewes River and for 10
miles below: in Miles Canyon between Lake Marsh and Lake Lebarge;
and on the Pelly near the mouth of the Hoole River. One instance
only has been noted — in the Stikine Valley, between Telegraph Creek
and the Tahltan River — where basalt has filled an old river channel
and covered auriferous gravels in its bottom. In this case the bare
of the present river, whose bed is for the most part cut below that of
the ancient stream, were notably richer along the stretches where these
ancient gravels were exposetl. In none of the other localities were
any underlying gravels observed, nor is it likely that in the interior
region, especially in the more northern part, any such gravels, even
if they exist, will be exposed, sin(!e, owing to the peculiar climatic
conditions existing there, the modern rivers have not cut the deep
valleys seen where the climate is warmer and the river gradient
steeper, as in California. The lava Hows noted above are all supposed
to be of pre-Glacial age, and are basaltic, thus dillering from the
recent volcanic rocks along the Alaska Peuinsula and the Aleutian
Islands, which are mostly andesitic.

Silts. — One of the most striking features of stream deposits in the
Yukon district is the grejit iiccumulation of tine silts in the broader
roaches of the valleys. The greatest of these is the Yukon Flats, an
area nearly 100 by 200 miles in extent, through wliicii the Yukon
River meanders for about 2.10 uiiles, fnmi Circle City to Fort Hamlin,
and which stretches 40 miles up the J'orcupine, where it is estimated
to be SK) miles wide in places. In this Hat region the Yukon River
spreads «mt to a width of many nules, tilling numerous clianuels, with
an archipelago of broad, low islands of silt between tiiem. The
main stream generally follows the right bank, which it is rapidly
cutting down, and is thus moving its bed gradually to the northward.
On the southwest the flat extends to Birch Creek, whi(!h below (Circle
City also meanders in it. Its general level is hardly more than 'M) or
40 feet above the river at low stages, but other portions are higher

MAP OF ALASKA, WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

and evidently above the level of overflow in the present condition
of the river. Similar flats, but of more moderate dimensions, occur
aloDK the Yukon between Fort Hamlin and Mynook Creek, at the
mouth of the Tanana and for some distance up the valley of the latter
stream, for 35 miles above the mouth of the Koyukuk River, and at
various points below this river down to the Yukon delta. These silts
contain abundant driftwood, and sometimes standing trees buried in
place; also shells of living species ; and in silt deposits above the con-
glomerates of the Palisades, 35 miles below the mouth of the Tanana,
parts of the skeletons of mammoths and other animals have been
found mixed with driftwood. The silts are also found in the lake
valleys and broader river valleys of the upper tributaries of the
Yukon, even within the region of glaciation. Here they are above
the till or bowlder-clay, which is the characteristic base deposit in a
glardated country, and are hence assumed to have originated since
the retreat of the continental glacier and to be made up largely of the
fine rock material ground up by that glacier. The fineness of their
material suggests that they must have been deposited in quiet water,
either lakes or very sluggishly moving streams ; the more rapidly
moving streams of the present day are mostly cutting down and
carrying away, except on the Yukon delta. In such deposits the gold
that is brought down would be in the linest state of division and so
generally disseminated as not to be likely to form workable placer
The stream gravels in the Upper Yukon are found to be more recent
than these silts, and rest upon them.

Gravel terraces. — The gravels of a modern stream are not necessarily
conlined to the i)reHent bottom of its valley, for, as is well known, the
stream is cutting down its bed and reaching a lower level from year
to year; moreover, in the existing bottom its ordinary Avater channel,
in which the cutting is done, is constantly changing from side to side.
At high stages of water the stream may till the entire \ alley, bringing
down in its rapid course more material than it can carry away, and
when it dwindles again to a comparatively narrow stream it leaves
benches or bars of coarser material on either side, which in the course
of its subsequent meandering it does not completely remove. Thus
there are often found on the sides of the valley, sometimes at (iousid-
erable heights above the present bottom, gravel benches or terraces
which are relics of such flood-plain de])osits, left theie in high stages
of the river, and when the valley bottom stoo*! at about that level.
Such gravel terraces are quite common along the Upper Yukon and
its various tributaries, sometimes standing several hundred feet above
the present stream. Where not too high the terrace gravels often
yield gold in paying (luantities; but the (juantily of this gold will
necessarily be dei)endeut, lii-st, upon the gold-bearing (luality of the
rocks from w hich they were derived, and, second, upon the distance

DETRITAL OR PLACER DEPOSITS.

they have been carried and the configuration of the bed-rock, which
might or might not favor the concentration of the gold in certain
spots. The successively higher terraces spread over broader and
broader areas, but in a broad body of water the chances for concentra-
tion are less favorable than in one confined within a narrow valley or
gorge. In some of the older mining districts, notably the Cassiar
district, around Dease Lake and the head of Stikine River, from
which over seven million dollars' worth of gold was taken, a con-
siderable portion is said to have been derived from terrace gnivels.
In general, however, they can not be expected to be as rich as the
gulch gravels ; but when collected in sufficient quantities and in such
situations that it is possible to bring a considerable head of water to
bear upon them, they may be profitably worked by the hydniiUic
process, as their elevation renders easy the ctirryiug away of the
tailings from the sluices. They may, moreover, have furnished
important additions to the gold contents of stream gravels, where they
would have been reassorted and concentrated by the action of water.
The same general remarks may be applied to gravel terraces about
lake basins which may have been formed at higher stages of the lake
waters. In tbe Silver IJow basin, nejir Juneau, which was once occu-
pied by a lake, the lake beds have been found gold-bearing only on
the side receiving drainage from an area where the rocks are known
to be gold-bearing.

RKCENT STRKAM GRAVELS.

Recent stream gravels may be divided into two chief classes, bars
and ffulch gravels.

Bars. — In the larger streams accumulations of gravel and sand are
made in places of slackening current, such iia the inner side of curves,
or at points whe e considerable coarse material is brought into the
main stream by more rapid tributaries. Such accuniulations are
called ''bars," and often contain much gold. In some cases practi-
cally the entire mass of gravel and sand in a river bed contains enough
gold to pay working by mechanifal processes which admit of the
handling of large amounts of material at a very small cost. In earlier
times the stream or river was HoiiictiiiH'S turiiod from its course in
order to admit of handling such nialcriiils. At the present day it has
been proved that in most cases sut^h gravt^l bars can be worked more
effectually and cheaply by fioatiug dredges, wliich raise the gravels to
suspended sluices. It is not known wiiether the bars of the Yukon
have yet In n testinl for gold, but there can be little doubt that they
contain it in considerable amount, and it seems probable that those in
the upper stretches of the river, especially uear strciims iliat drain
known gold-bearing areas, will be found to be rich. Whether
climatic and other iumditions are such that dredging can be carried
on with success must be determined by practical experinu>nt.

MAP OF ALASKA, WITH DESCRIPTIVE lEXT.

.,; 1,1

Gulch gravels. — Coarse gold can not, under ordinary circumstances,
be carried very far by running water ; hence it is in the gulches that
the rich deposits of coarse gold are ordinarily found, and in the side
gulches that it is generally the coarsest, as in them the gravel is
nearest its source. It is not always actually running water that has
concentrated the gold; the metal is so much heavier than rock material
that a relatively slight disturbance of loose material, if continued
long enough, will result in settling most of the large particles at or
near the bed-rocks. Still, that running water is the most important
factor in the concentration of gold is shown by the fact that this concen-
tration is greatly dependent on the nature of the bed-rock ; where this
presents a rough, ragged surface, especially where ridge-like protru-
sions run across the stream, like the riffles in a sluice box, the gold is
more readily caught aud the gravels resting in it are much richer
than where the surface is smooth, even, and without many cracks.
Thus the experienced miner knows that where there is a narrow dike
of harder roek, or, still better, a series of hard schistose rocks standing
on edge that cross the gulch in which he is working, he is liable to
find the richest concentration of gold, and that in the latter case it
may even settle down into the cracks of the bed-rock for several feet.
The lowest channel does not necessarily correspond with that of the
present stream, since the latter, as already noted, is frequently chang-
ing its course within the material accumulated in the long years
during which it hjis been flowing, and it may have been pushed to
one side or the other of the valley by landslides. The actual pay dirt
is generally confined within comparatively few feet of the bed-rock.
Sometimes the miner finds what he calls a false bed-rock, which is
generally a clayey seam that marks some special stage in the history
of the stream. The amount or depth of gravel in the bottom of a
gulch or valley is depeudeut on its size aud shape, and the experienced
eye can estimate approximately what it is by mentally carryiug down
the outlines of the rock surface on either side of the valley to a
meeting under the geutler-sloj)ing valley bottom . It is also, naturally,
much thinner near the head of a gulch, and in tliis region, where
these heads are frequently occupied by glaciers or bodies of perennial
ice and snow, they generally have a rounded, amphitheater-like shape,
the breaking down of the rock occurring mainly at its contact with
the ice. In the great diurnal changes oi' temperature of the short
summer months of this region the water seeping into rock cracks by
day is frozen at night, and by its expansion pries off' fragments from
the cHUh. The material thus loosened gradually slips down; but, as
a rule, not until it hjis been moved for a considerable distance, ordi-
narily some miles down the valley, is the gold thoroughly settled to
the bottom along the bed-rock surface.
The general character of the gravel, aud of the gold itself in the

DETRITAL OR PLACER DEPOSITS.

gulches that have been studied, such as those in the Fortj^mile and
Birch Creek districts, shows that the gravels have not been carried
very far. The rock fragments are not completely rounded ; they are
generally rather angular, and often quite tlil. The gold also is not
completely rounded.

CHARACTERISTICS AND iJISTRIBUTION OF KNOWN PLACERS.

The extraordinarily rich placer deposits of the gulches tributary
to the Klondike liiver above Dawson, and of similar gulches of the
nearby Indian Creek and Stewart River, have been so recently opened
that no detailed geological description of these localities has yet been
received. In his report, however, Spurr had shown that the strike
of the gold-bearing rocks in the Fortymile district, and the exposures
observed along the Yukon, indicated that their gold must have been
derived from the same gold-bearing formations that had furnished
the richest placers in the districts visited by him. A brief statement
of the prominent characteristics of these districts as given by him will
therefore probably be of value to the prospector. Geologj' can give
only general indications and point out where gold may be found.
The actual location of rich concentrations must be determined by the
miner himself.

The hills surrounding the gulches of the Little ^Mynook and Hunter
creeks, on the Lower Yukon, are formed of rocks of the IJampart
series. The bed-rocks are of diabase, tutl's, impure shales, and quartz-
ites, and in the bottoms of the gulches there is from 10 to 20 feet
of gravel. The gravel consists in part of angular fragments of rocks
that form the walls of the gulch, in part of waterworn pebbles of Birch
Creek schist, schistose granite, and other rocks. The gold is gen-
erally in rounded, beau-shaped grains and nuggets, and less frequently
in unworn particles. This points to a two-fold origin of the gold, as
derived in part from the rocks immediately about and in part from
distant and older rocks, which may have been worn down, possibly
along an old seashore, into terrace gravels, and then by subsequent
erosion brought into the ])rcseiit stream l)eds. Further exploration in
the hills to the south may disclose the true source of these pebbles and
of the gold that accompanies them. On American ('reek, in the Mission
Creek district, the gold-bearing placers are also derivetl from rocks of
the Rampart series — quartzitic schists, serpentines, and chloritic
rocks — and the gold is said l)y Spurr to have been derived mainly
from the schistose zones in tl»e bed-rock.

The richest gravels have been found in the Birch Creek and Forty-
mile districts. In the entire Birch Creek district, which lies south of
Circle City, and on Miller, Glacier, Poker, and Davis creeks of the
Fortymile district, near the international boundary, the bed-rocks are
always the quart/ite-schists of the Birch Creek series, containing veins

• "HV V »l7.f '7., w-t; V;

MAP OF ALASKA, WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

,S!,i

of quartz. The gravels rest, as a rule, directly on the schist, though
in some cases, as on Harrison and Eagle creeks in the Birch Creek
district, there is clay beneath the gravels, and the gold as a rule does
not extend into the bed-rock but occurs chiefly at the top of the clay.
Generally, however, the schist is rotted and reddeuetl from oxidation
for a few inches to several feet below the surface, and in this part the
gold has settled into the ci-acks and joints. The pay gravels lie mostly
next the bed-rock, in an average thickness of perhai)8 2 feet, though
sometimes up to 10 feet, while the overlying gravels average 8 or 10
feet, with a maximum of 25 feet. In the gravels the schist is in quite
large, flat fragments, and the quartz is in bowldvers of varying size.
The schist frr^gments lie flat, and are mixed with sand, showing that
the sorting action of running water hsis not been carried far. In the
concentrates from the sluice boxes the heavier minerals associated
with the gold — galena, magnetite, limonite, hornblende, and garnet —
are in each case such as are found in the neighboring schists, and the
nuggets of gold often have pieces of quartz still adhering to them.
All these facts are evidence that the gold is derived from rocks in
the vicinity, and is not brought from a great distance, perhaps by
glaciers, as some erroneously suppose.

The rocks of the Fortymile series in the Fortymile district, as
already stated, form the west bank of Fortymile Creek, and south of
the South Fork cross the divide between Franklin Gulch and Napoleon
Creek, where they are overlain by green slates of the Rampart series,
which in turn are overlain by conglomerates of the Mission Creek
series. In Fninklin Creek the bed-rocks are marbles interbedded
Avith mica- and hornblende-schists ; the gravel contains fragments of
marble, quartzite, micui-schists, and vein quartz. At one point a
quartz vein is found in the bed-rock, and below it native silver has
been found in the gravels, which apparently came from this vein. It
is the schistose rocks that mostly carry the gold, as the marbles do
not show much evidence of veins. In this gulch are two levels ; the
higher one, at the head of the gulch, had not been worked, while
the pay gold had been found mainly at the lower level, near the
mouth of the gluch.

t'hicken Creek, so called because its gold occurs in grains the size
of chicken feed, drains a wide area toward the Ketchumstock Hills to
the southwest, and the actual source of the gold is less readily deflned.
The gravel contains fragments of granite, quartzite, schist, and marble.

On Napoleon Creek conglomerate forms the bed-rock near the
mouth. The gravels contain fragments of quartzite, vein quartz,
hornblende-granite, and various eruptive rocks, and the source of the
gold is assumed to be the conglomerate, which is made up of frag-
ments of the older rocks, for the rocks higher up the gulch above the
conglomerates have not been found to carry much gold.

-■tlJWU?JiA:Di»5f<.l73.'^-T

EXTENT OF GOLD-BEAKINO DEPOSITS.

The most trustworthy reports from the Klondike region indicate
that the exceptionally rich placer gravels thus far found occur in side
valleys entering the main Klondike Valley from the south, such as
lionanza, Eldorado, and Hunker creeks, and in some gulches across
the divide tributary to Indian or Stewart rivers. No gold in paying
quantities had been found on the Klondike itself. The placer deposit
generally consists of 10 to 15 feet of frozen muck and decayed vegeta-
tion at the surface, then a gravel bed that rarely pays; below that a
clay selvage, under which is pay dirt from 1 to 5 feet in thickness
resting on the upturned edges of the schist, from which it is separated
by a clay selvage. The pay streak or bottom of the old channel is
usually very regular and straight, not following the bends of the
present stream. It is said to average GO cents to the pan, and may
yield $1 to $.'{. Only very exceptionally rich gravel can be worked
at all under present conditions.

PROBABLE EXTENT OF GOLD-BEARING DEPOSITS.

In a new country gold is first sought in the stream gravels, and
thence traced up to its source. Very fine gold may be carried long
distances by river waters ; hence it is only when it becomes relatively
coarse, or at any rate carries coarse particles, that the source may be
considered necessarily near at hand. Fine gold is found in almost all
the rivers of Alaska; even the silts of the Yukon yield it in places.
Gold has been found along the whole length of the Lewes, the Teslin,
the IJig Salmon, the Pelly, the Stewart, and the Selwyn, and on the
Yukon River almost continuously from the junction of thr Lewes
and Pelly downward. Still further east, Frances and Dease rivers,
the main branches of Liard River, which flows into the Mackenzie,
carry gold. In the Cassiar district, on the Dease River, gold was
discovered as early as 1861. The district was actively worked as a
placer camp from 187;^ to 1887, during which time it yielded about
five million dollars' worth of gold dust. These upper regions are
distant about 1,000 miles in a straight line from the known outcrops
of gold-bearing rocks in the Rampart Mountains on the Lower Yukon,
and are within areas either in which exposures of the gold-bearing
rocks as defined above are actually known to exist or in which the
similar lithological character of rocks described renders it probable
that in some part of the area they may be exposed.

There is also some evidence of the extension of rocks of the gold-
bearing series to the northwest of the Lower Yukon, though it is as
yet impossible to determine whether the primitive gold-bearing rocks
of the Birch Creek and Fortyraile series there come to the surface, or
whether it is simply the fossil placiers or gold-bearing conglomerates
of later fornuitious, where made up of fragments of these older rocks,
that have furnished the gold of modern streams.

MAP OF ALASKA, WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

:f!i

I 'I'

J! I

tti .

in
m

In this re{?iou sold has been found extensively along the Koyukuk,
and most abundantly, as already mentioned, where the valley cuts
through conglomerates, supposed to belong to the Kenai series.
This is at the forks, about 300 miles above the mouth, below which
the country is low and swampy. Above the forks the mountains
close in and the sides of the valleys become precipitous. The gold in
the bars is 8ai<l to be coarse, suggesting nearness to the source, and
has yielded as much as 8100 per day by use of the rocker. Pros-
pectors are said to have explored to considerable distances above the
forks, up to 500 miles from the mouth, and to have recognized r<K;ks
similar to those of the Birch Creek and Fortymile districts. This, if
true, is important as an indication of still further extensions of the
area of exposures of the older gold-bearing rocks.

Further east, at the head of Dall Elver, low, broken hills, a])par-
ently composed of schists and quartzose rocks, extend northeastward
to the Komanzof IMountains, The latter are snow covered in summer,
and form the northern boundary of a low plain that lies to the north
of Porcupine Kiver. These mountains are likewise said to be made
up of metamorphic schists and quartzites.

Still further northwest, in the country to the northeast of Kolzebue
Sound, gold has been reported from the Kowak and Noatak rivers.
It is possible that the older series of rocks is exposed in the mountsiins
of this region, but more probable that the gold is derived from the
conglomerates of the Mission Creek series, which, as already shown,
afford gold on Napoleon Creek and in the Mission Creek district.

Gold is also reported by prospectors from a belt of country which
is generally parallel to the known gold belt but set off to the S(uith-
west, and which corresponds to the supposed southwestern flank of
the granite backbone. Such discoveries have been reported from Fish
Creek, which flows into Norton Sound north of St. Michael, and from
the upper Kuskokwim Eiver, which flo\,'s iii^o Bering Sea, f)n the
Sushitna Kiver, which flows into Cook lulet, \V, A. Dickey reports
colors of line gold in the sands all along M13 stream, and platinum
on the upper river, where veins of white quartz carrying gold, silver,
and copper were found in slates asssociated with granite and porphyry.
Gold and copper have been reported by various persons from the
region about the sources of the Copper and White rivers. It is thus
evident that the elevated region along the heads of these various
streams, and l)etweeu them and the waters of the Tanana, possesses
great possibilities in the way of mineral development, but from all
accounts it is a region exceptionally difficult of access, and it may
well be questioned whether it is advisable to attempt its exploration
until facilities for travel and obtaining supplies in the Yukon region
have been increased, as they undoubtedly will be in the near future.

More accessible is the region immediately north of tho Tanana

EXTENT OF GOLD-BEARING DEPOSITS.

River known as the Tanana Hills and Ketchiirastock Hills, which from
reports appears to be mainly a granite region, but in which it is likely
that outliers or patches of the gold-bearing schists will be found
inclosed within the granite area.

Late reports by prospectors in the Tanana region state that the river
has slack water, navigable for steamers 150 to 200 miles above its
mouth ; above that the current is swift. Mountains border the river
on the north side from the mouth up; on the south they are far
distant. Colors are found in all the creeks; those heading toward
Fortymile and Seventymile offer best promises, but no important
prospects have Loeu found. Toward Circle City the creeks do not
freeze up, and a hot spring was found in one of the gulches.

In the mountain region to the northeast of the Yukon River imme-
diately above the bend, such observations as have been made do not
offer much promise of exposures of the older gold-bearing schists.
Older limestones occur there, but, though important gold deposits are
known to occur in limestones, in the Yukon country the general rule
appears to prevail that gold is concentrated mainly in the siliceous
rocks. It may well be, however, that in the conglomerate or cement
deposits of the coal-bearing formations that are known to occur in
this northeastern region there are portions sufficiently rich in gold
to make payable placers by their wearing down. In searching for
such places the prospector should study the character of the pebbles
that make up the conglomerate. It is only when these include frag-
ments of the gold-bearing rocks, and occasionally of vein quartz, that
they are likely to be productive.

For the region east of the international boundary, Spurr hatl already
pointed out, as a result of his observations in the summer of 1896,
that the Klondike and Indian Creek regions were likely to show rich
placers, because the schists of the Birch Creek series, and to some
extent the marbles of the Fortymile series, formed the bed-rock.

George M. Dawson reports bars of fairly coarse gold on the Pelly
all the way up to Hoole River. Just below the mouth of the McMillan
the river has cut a canyon through gray granite hills, below which are
dark crystalline schists with east- west strike and northerly dip, associ-
ated with which are alternating marbles and chloritic schists, probably
of the Fortymile series. Granite occurs again near the junction with
the Lewes. Of the valley of the McMillan nothing wjis known. The
Pelly above the detour or bend had a similar series of quartzite-
schists, with interbedded limestones on the north, while the Glenlyon
Hills to the south were of granites. Above these are sandstones
supposed to belong to the coal-bearing series and dipping 45° S. Still
higher up in Hoole Canyon are marbles again, associated with schists
and volcauic rocks, possibly of the Rampart series. Still further
northeast, in the middle canyon of the Frances River, Dawson found

p^*

^gfSj[^^ff4r^--^-^vam!:vv:^--'*^\ .

MAV OF ALASKA, WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

rli:'

til'

'.t

marbles agaiu, while in the Tootsha Range to the east \\ere seen
granites and schists with abundant quartz veins.

All along the summit of the Coast Range the prevailing rocks are
granites, cut by later porphyry dikes. They form a belt 20 to 80
miles wide, and are generally of the hornblende or intrusive type.
On the Dyea and .Skagway trails they extend down on the northeast
side to the mid-length of Lake Bennett. In the range of hills between
Miles Canyon and the Teslin River are diabasic or dark eruptive rocks
and limestones, which may belong to the Rampart series, though
Dawson considers the limestones to be probably Carboniferous.

Along the region of Rink and Fi^ e Finger rapids, below the Big
Salmon, are infolded masses of Cretaceous rocks (Kenai?) with con-
glomerate at the base, overlain in places by lavas. Below these are
greenish eruptive rocks, and then near the mouth of the Pelly is
granite again, succeeded below the Pelly by b?«alt Hows. Twenty-five
miles below the Pelly granitic rocks again appear, and are succeeded
by crystalline schists of various kinds, which constitute the prevailing
rock dowji nearly to Fortymile.

OTHFR METALS THAN GOLD.

In the sands of some of the streams along the Yukon, and of the
Sushitna River, platinum has been noted, and may be n\uch more
(!onunon than yet appears, as miners do not as a rule pay much atten-
tion to this metal owing to its Mant of bright color. Xative silver
and arquerite, or silver amalgam, have also been noted, the latter in
the Cassiar district. Native copper was among the first juetals
reported from this region, it having been in use to a certain extent
among the Indians, who claimed to have obtained it near the head of
the Copper River, to which circumstance that river doubtless owes
its name. Specimens have been brought in from there in recent years,
but it iloes iiot appear that the deposits from whi«jh they came have
yet been discovered. Xative copper was also Ibund in some of the
placers of the Cassiar district.

Necessarily, in so early a stage of developnu?nt as the present, little
is known of minerals occurring in the original or vein deposits, as
under present conditions tliey can not be profitably worked. Yet it
is on them, rather than on placer deposits, that a permanent mining
industry must eventually be founded. Thvn few that have already been
noted, mainly by Spurr and his associates, will be briefiy mentioned.

On the Lower Yukon ;{5 miles below Tanana Post, one of the nar-
row veins of the Jiirch (^reek series had been driver on for 110 feet in
a tunnel; it is much pinched and faulted and carries small amounts of
gold and silver. In the Hampart series some aurifei'ous (piartz veins
have been prospected, but tlie principal mineral developnuuit is along
shear /ones, sonuitimes of great width, which contain copper and iron

COAL AND LIGNrrE.

pyiite, ofteu with gold and silver in small amount. The copper is
frequently altered to the green silicate.

On the trail from Circle City to Birch Creek district, 15 miles from
the former, is a quartz vein showing much free gold and said to be 10
feet wide. On Deadwowl Creek in this district is a wide vein rich in
galena and silver. At the head of Eagle and Golddust creeks are
wide quartz veins, one being said to be 150 feet wide, of common rusty
quartz. Some fragments from wide veins crossing the schists show
beads of gold.

In the Fortymile district opposite the mouth of Clinton Creek is a
mineralized zone in limet'tone, more or less silicified and stained dark
red, known jis Cone Hill. It is 200 to .'500 feet wide and is supposed
to be auriferous. Green stained specimens from it were found to
contain small amounts of nickel, chromium, arsenic, and antimony.
Traces of gold and silver were found in the sandstone overlying this
deposit. A small vein of argentiferous galena crosses Fonymile Creek
a few miles above its liiouth. Between Fortymile and Fort Reliance
copper pyrites occur at several points, impi-egnating the schists, and
opposite the mouth of Klondike Creek a tunnel had been driven into
a wide body of ore in the schistose rocks which was said to assjiy $.'iO
in gold and !?1S in silver to the ton.

It is not thouo'ht worth ;"hile to describe, or veu enumerate, all
the known mines now being worked in the coastal region, as they bear
no geological relation to the deposits of the interior, and their general
characteristics have already been mentioned.

COAL AND LKiNITE.
COASrAI. KKdION.

The following synopsis of what is known in regard to the coal and
lignite of Alaska is condensed from the fuller report on the same sub-
ject by W. H. Dall, printed in the Seventeenth Annual Report of the
United States Geological Survey, I'art I.

The coal of Alaska so far examined, whether in the interior or on the
seacoast south of liering Strait, is of Koceue or early ^Fertiary age and
belongs without ex(!eption to varietits of lignite, brown coal, or glance
coal. Korth of liering Strait, in the vicinity of Cape Lisl)urne, is a
coal field of considerable extent contaiiiiiig a tuel \\hi<*h is b«'lieve<l to
be of greater geological age, periiaps similar to that so extensively
mined at Ts'anaimo and other points in British Columbia. As ro<'ks
of Carboniferous age occur in close proximity to this coal, it was long
suppos<Hl to belong to the Paleozoic 4'oal nu'asures, like that of Penn-
sylvania, but an examination of the fossil plants actually associated
with it has shown this opinion to be erronectus.

The various coals of Alaska occur in beds interst rati lied with sand-
stone, shale, conglomerate, and clay, these rocks usiially containing

MAP OF ALASKA, WITH DESCRIVTrVE TEXT.

numerous fossil plauts, leaves, cones, and amber derived from the fos-
silizatioL' of resin from the ancient coniferous forests.

Like all Tertiary coals, the Alaska mineral is light in proportion
to its bulk, burns rapidly with little smoke, and has a tendency to
break up into small pieces under the action of the weather. The
glance coal is brilliant and clean to handle, like anthracite, for which
it is often mistaken, but which, bulk for bulk, is considerably heavier.
The bro vn coal gives a brown instead of a black streak when scratched,
has the appearance of fossil wood, and in drying splits ut> into chip-
like pieces. The geological formation containing the coal and leaf-
bearing jhales is called the Kenai formation, and is usually covered
by beds of sandstone containing fossil oysters and other shells belong-
ing to the Miocene or middle Tertiary.

Many coal seams have been partially explored, rnd a much larger
number have been reported but not examined by experts. Of the
former the following beds promise to have some commercial import-
ance, though none has been thoroughly exploied in a scientific manner.

Admiralty Island coal field. — The broken mass of land named
Admiralty Island is penetrated by a complex system of waterways
known as Kootznahoo Inlet. The land is comparatively low, and in
places on the shores coal seams and leaf- bearing shales crop out, of
which a number have been prospected. Many of the beds are broken
up by faults and fractures, but these conditions are less conspicuous
in the eastern part of the area surrounding the inlet. The most
promising deposits are at the extreme east, at the head of a body of
water called Davis Creek, about 10 miles by water from the entrance
of the inlet. About 100 tons of coal have been taken out here by the
proprietor of the mine, who has found a ready sale for it. It is not a
coking coal. The locality is situated about 40 miles northeast from
Sitka, near the Killisnoo village.

Cook Inlet or Kenai coalfield. — This is the largest and most imiwrtant
coal field known in Alaska. It is situated on the Kenai Peninsula,
forming the eastern shore of Cook Inlet north of Kachemak Bay,
where the coal seams are exposed in high bluffs rising to nearly 2,000
feet above the sea. From these biutt's the coal extends northward,
with gentle undulations, and finally dips below the sea-level near Cape
Kussilof, covering an urea about 70 miles long and .SO miles wide. At
Kachemak Bay, where the best outcrops ami the only good harbor
are found, there are six or seven beds, one above another, the thickest
being 4 feet thick, and the best coal coming from the lowest beds. A
good deal of prospwting has been done here and several shiploads of
coal have been taken out. The (\>ok Inlet coals have about the average
amount of moisture, less than the avtunge amount of ash, reniarkably
little sulphur, and nu)re than the average amount of volatile com-
bustible matter. "When all the conditions arc taken iu.'o oc'^urt, \\v-

■■i

wmmm

COAL AND LIGNITE.

Cook Inlet coal field is by far the most promising commercially of all
Alaskan coal deposits.

Amalik Harbor coal seam. — This is situated on the south side of
Alaska Peninsula, in longitude 154° 30' W. The seam is small at the
outcrop and has not been explored, but the coal is of very excellent
quality, coking well, and larger seams may exist in the vicinity.

IJnga Island coal seams. — ^These are on the shores of Zacharefskaia
Bay, on the north side of the islana of TJnga, Shumagin group, and
have been worked more or less since 1865. The coi.l is of poor quality
and contains an excessive amount of sulphur, but has been utilized
to some extent for local puri>os'«.

Chignik Bay ''oal seam. — This is situated on a river flowing into
Chignik Bay, on the south side of Alaska Peninsula, in about longi-
tude 158° 33' W. The coal is of good quality, and several hundred
tons have been mined for use in the local salmon cannery, where it is
reported to give satisfaction.

^■rendeen Bay coal field. — This is situated on the north side of
I .' ".a Peninsula, on a i>oint which separ-ttes Herendeen and Moller
buys. The field is about 4 miles square, but there are several vol-
cajiOAs in the vicinity and the rocks are more or less faulted. Some
handrecis of tons were taken out from a mine near the head of
Herendeen Bay, but the mine is no longer in operation.

Cape Llsburne coalfield. — This deposit, before alluded t«, is situated
on the Arctic coast, extending in a general way from a point a 'ew
miles eastward from Cai)e Lisburne to Cape Beaufort, a distance of
over 25 miles. Its inland extension is unknown, and whether the
coal which occurs on the same coast further north is of the same age
or not is likewise unknown. The Cape Lisburne coal has been used
extensively '»y the steam whaleshipt , but no reguhir mining operations
have been ■ 'urtaken.

Coal ( tj 1^ * ;' V of the Kenai formation which usually contain more
or less I Ml' i 'f been reported from the following localities, but the
character, e\v' it. iiud availability of such deposits are unknown or
problematical.

AliKXANDKR ARCHIPKLAGC

St. John Baptist Bay, about 16 miles in a nortiiV.cv.ierly dirwtion
from Sitka.

Surprise Harbor, near Point Gardner. This is at the southern extrenui
of the ^mimlty group of islands, on Frederick Sound.

Po): <' iden. This bay penetrates Kuiu Island from the northesust.
The cok; i the east side of the bay, 7 miles from the entrance.

Whale Bay, Bara no/ Island. This is about 23 miUw soiitluuist from
Sitka.

M^cst coast of Kuiu Island. Coal in latitude 56° 25'.

MAP OF ALASKA, WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

Il^i

TAndenherg Peninmila. Coal or lignite on the northern shore of
Kuprejinof Island.

Ohwhagof Maud, at the southeastern extremity, on Chatham Strait.

Hood Bay, on the opposite shore of i hatham Strait from the last
lociility.

Prince of Wales Island, near Kasahan Bay.

Seymour Canal, Admiralty Island, near its western part.

COAST BETWEEN CAPE SPENCER AND COOK INLET.

lAtuya Bay. Exact locality not known.

Ynkutat Bay. On the northeastern shore, near Disenchantment
Bay.

Port Graham. At the southeast entrance to Cook Inlet.

Copper River delta. Petroleum in considerable quantity, as well as
lignite, is reported hei» ' ■*

ALASKA PENl...

A AND ALEUTIAN ISLANDS.

Cape Doufflas, at west point of entrance of Cook Inlet.

Katmni. On the portage across the peninsula from this bay both
coal and petroleum are reported.

Umnuk Bay, Kadiak. Also on Uganuk Island, in the Bay.

Red River, Kadiak.

Sitki7iak Inland. Southwest of Kadiak.

Yanlarnic Bay. South side of Alaska Peninsula, in longitude 157°
10' W.

Cold Bay. South side of the peninsula, in longitude 155° 25' W.

Coal Cape. South side of the i^eninsula, in longitude 159° W.; also:

Coal Bay and Porfaye Bey, near by.

Parlof Bay. West shore, near Pavlof Mountain.

Akuu Inland .

Anther Lake, Cnalaska. Near the center of the iHlaud.

Unmak Island. Northwestern extreuie.

Sandy Bay, Atka Island.

Kirilof Bay, Aniehitka Island.

COAST AND ISLANDS OF BKRIN« SKA.

l*oint Vaneourer.

[J^nalaklik Rirer, Norton Sound.

Topa n ika , No rton Sound.

llukak River Valley, Norton Sound.

LOWER TUKON RIVKR VALLEY.

Andrea/ski Post.
Kallaff villaye.

Nvlato. Seven miles below the post, on right bank of the Yukon ;
iilso iil)ovc llu' ])(«< oil the same bank, for several uiiles.

Melozik
mouth of

There a
Canadian

Kowak J
is a coal fi

Waimor\
the inlet.

In concl
made give
of 0.927, >
1.351, the
Bay at 1.1

From th
following c
Hess Cre
of Hess (a]
are exposec
vertical. '
limestones,
which is 2
coaly shak
tains .ipeck
and 7 to 8
Coal Cret
miles beloM
diau territ<
about 12 m
been taken
rather light
specks. It
carbon thai
(iharacter.

Other loeu
onteriug tlu
also on Cha

Beds h-
<'oal seams,
reported fr(
Uiver, nota
Kiver, and

COAL AND LIGNITE.

Melozikdkat. On the left bank, 20 miles below the settlement at the
mouth of the Melozikakat.

There are other localities reported further up the
Canadian territory.

river, ehieHy in

ARCTIC COAST AND RIVERS.

Koicak River, Kohehue Sound. Seventy-five miles above the mouth
is a coal field 30 miles wide.

Waimcright Inlet, Arctic Ocean. On the banks of a river enterinj;
the inlet.

In conclusion it may Ije said that the tests of Alaskan coals so far
made give a fuel value for the best Alaskan lignite from Cook Inlet
of 0.927, when the Wellington coal of British Columbia is rate<l at
1.351, the Nanaimo at 1.306, the Seattle at 1.229, and the Bellingham
Bay at 1.148.

INTERIOR REGIONS.

From the reports of Spurr and of the Canadian geologists the
following data are gleaned:

Hess Creek. — On the right bank of the Yukon just below the mouth
of Hess (also called ^\Tiymper) Creek frequent sejims of lignitic coal
are exposed in the shales of the Kenai series, which here stiind nearly
vertical. The shales alternate with conglomerates, grits, and impure
limestones. Three seivms have been openetl by Oliver Miller, one of
which is 2 feet thick; another shows 3 to 4 feet of mixe<l coal and
coaly shale, with 18 inches clear coal. The coal is brittle and .'on-
tains specks of amber ; an average sample shows 18 per cent of ash
and 7 to 8 per cent of moisture.

Coal Creek. — Coal Oeek enters the Yukon from the east 8 to 10
miles below the mouth of Fortymile Creek, aii<l hence is within ('aua-
dian territory. Two 4- foot seams of coal are repiuled in sandstone
about J 2 miles above the mouth of this stream, from which ct)al has
been taken. It has a brilliant luster and a conchoidal fracture, is
rather light in weight, and ctirries some pyrite iiud amber in small
specks. It apparently contains less ash and a higher percenlagt' of
carbon than the Miller mine coal, but is of the same general lignitic
character.

Other localities. — Coal of a similar quality <)C(!ur8 on a small creek
entering the Yukon from the same side a few miles below Coal Creek ;
also on Chandindu Creek, about 8 miles above the moiilli.

Beds b-dng a composition similar to that of the beds enclosing the
coal seams, and like them carrying impressions of fossil ])lants, arc
reported from various points in the country northeast of tl e Yukon
liiver, notably up the Tatonduc and Kandik rivers and on Big Bhuk
River, and it may be assumed that a belt of these coal-l)earing rock.-i

MAP OF ALASKA, VITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

ifc

stretches through this region in a northwest-southeast direction,
generally parallel with and often very close to the Yukon.

An area of the same rocks has been noted on the Lewes River, in
Canadian territory, where several seams of coal are exposed in a bluflf
on the right-hand side a few miles above the Rink Rapids, one of which
is 3 feet thick, affording about 18 to 20 inches of clear coal ; the
others are somewhat thinner.

The rocks of this formation are generally steeply inclined and often
much folded, hence not favorably situated for mining, and the coals
thus far known are of light weight and rather low grade, and do not
bear distant transportation.

On American Creek, and on Napoleon Creek near the head of
Fortymile Creek, are seams of impure lignite within the Mission Creek
beds, a series of thin-bedded limestones, shales, sandstones, and con-
glomerates which are assumed to be of earlier age than the Kenai
series. The developments are not sufiicient for a determination of the
economic value of these older coals.

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DEPARTMENT
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