RESOURCES 275 



The mineral resources of the Territory are yet in an 

 undeveloped condition, but unless all signs fail, the chief 

 wealth to be obtained from Alaska will be taken from 

 the ground. Coal is known to exist in many localities, 

 but is nowhere, as yet, mined on a commercial scale, 

 owing mainly to its inferior quality; the coal in use at 

 present is brought from Nanaimo or Puget Sound. Cop- 

 per vein deposits of great magnitude and richness have 

 been found, notably on Copper River and the shores of 

 Prince William Sound, but as yet none of them have 

 been developed, beyond the shipping of a few hundred 

 tons of ore for testing. Gold deposits, both placer and 

 vein, have been found in various places all over the terri- 

 tory. They are so widely distributed and so rich as to 

 lead to the conclusion that with more extended and thor- 

 ough prospecting, the known auriferous areas will be 

 vastly increased and the yield of the yellow metal mul- 

 tiplied many times. Some of the quartz mines, as the 

 Treadwell, near Juneau, have been worked productively 

 for many years. This mine alone has produced about 

 $10,000,000. Others have recently become productive, 

 and still others, more numerous, are yet in the develop- 

 ment stage. The mines near Juneau produced, in 1899, 

 gold of the value of nearly two million dollars. At sev- 

 eral localities in southeastern Alaska and on the Shu- 

 magin Islands quartz mines have been discovered, but at 

 present placers are far more abundant. They have been 

 found on many of the tributaries of the Yukon, especially 

 on those from the south, the Sushitna, the Kuskokwim, 

 and the Koyukuk, and in the north, the Ambler and the 

 Noatak. At several places gold has been found in the 

 beach sands on the seashore, and last, but by no means 

 least, on the beach and the stream-beds at Cape Nome 

 and Port Clarence. These last discoveries seem to be 

 the greatest of the whole northwest, rivaling, and prob- 



