366 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
The Lewes River, flowing from Lake Laberge, and the Yukon, of 
which it is a large tributary, flows northward in. a channel with many 
windings between high terraces of gravel and sand. White Horse is 
situated on the flat river bank at the base of one of these high gravel 
terraces, well exhibited in plate 1. The upper part of the valley is 
full of glacial detritus and fine mud from the glaciers that once cov- 
ered the higher country, and the river is busy excavating a lower 
channel in these loose deposits. Over a large district the sandy soil 
under the grass has a skin of impalpable white ash from 6 inches to a 
couple of feet deep, that has been wafted hither at the time of some 
prodigious eruption of an unknown volcano long ago, and has fallen 
quietly like a shower of fine snow over the face of hill and dale. 
Though the latitude is that of our Shetland Islands, this part of the 
Yukon Valley is thickly covered with trees, mainly aspen, birch, alder, 
and spruce. In the bright September days the whole landscape was 
blazing with the brilliant golden and scarlet tints of the autumn 
foliage, mingled with the somber hue of the firs in the lower reaches, 
and this mass of rich colormg faded away into the deep blue and 
purple of the bare mountain crests in the background of the lovely 
picture. 
Many kinds of rock are to be found along the Yukon Valley, from 
pre-Cambrian ‘schists to Tertiary and recent volcanic lavas. At 
Tantalus, where the Nordenskiédld joins the Lewes River, 200 miles 
below White Horse, and at the Five Finger Rapids some miles farther 
down, seams of coal are seen cropping out on the cliff faces. Although 
there is much true Carboniferous limestone in the district, this forma- 
tion is not associated with any coal, and, as is the case all over western 
Canada and Alberta, the coal is all of younger age, and is interbedded 
with Jurassic and Cretaceous strata. The seams are sometimes over 
7 feet thick, and at Tantalus there is a mine in operation in the cliff 
at the river’s edge where several thousand tons have been worked. 
The coal is of great use, as the woods near the river have been largely 
cut for fuel and for mining and building purposes, and the supply is 
thus becoming scarcer every year. But the quality of the coal is not 
very good, and its percentage of ash is high. 
Near White Horse a valuable body of copper ore is also bemg mined 
in the hills, and if enough good coal were to be discovered a great 
impetus would be given to permanent local industry of a better kind 
than precarious gold mining. The region has for half theryear at least 
a good and sunny climate, and as it is now fairly accessible it may 
some day develop into a useful grazing or agricultural territory. It 
is, of course, still largely unexplored, and more valuable minerals and 
other resources may yet be discovered in the unfrequented remoter 
hinterland out of sight of the river highway. 
