Railway Routes in Alaska 



169 



a little-known region, as will be shown 

 later; it is close to one of the pro- 

 posed railway routes into the interior. 

 Another fact bearing on the mineral re- 

 sources can be interpreted in terms of 

 geology. On either side of the Wran- 

 gell Mountains is a belt of Devonian 

 rocks which are copper-bearing (see 

 map, page 169). These are, indeed, the 

 outcrops of the same terrane along two 

 areas of a syncline and form the ob- 

 jective points of several railway projects. 

 The map on page 168 shows the dis- 

 tribution of the auriferous terranes of 

 the territory so far as determined. It 

 emphasizes the fact that there is an ex- 

 tensive gold-bearing area lying well 

 within the heart of the territory and 400 

 ■to 500 miles from tidewater. 



COAL AND COPPER 



The total area of the known coal- 

 "bearing rocks in Alaska is approximately 

 12,000 square miles (see map, page 170). 



Unfortunately, much of the coal in the 

 northern province is of a lignitic charac- 

 ter, and though it will eventually find 

 local use, cannot now be regarded as an 

 important source of tonnage for rail- 

 ways. There are two coal fields, how- 

 ever, the Controller Bay and Matanuska, 

 aggregating at least 120 square miles, 

 which carry high-grade bituminous and 

 some semi-anthracite coal. This coal is 

 superior to any mined on the Pacific sea- 

 board of the continent and is suitable for 

 metallurgical purposes. Both fields are 

 objective points of railways now under 

 construction and are expected to furnish 

 local tonnage for these roads, to be event- 

 ually extended into the interior. Bitumi- 

 nous coals also occur on the Yukon and 

 at Cape Lisburne, on the Arctic Ocean. 



Only the copper deposits of the inland 

 region are important to this discussion, 

 and these include two different districts 

 lying north and south of the Wrangell 

 Mountains, on the two arms of a syncline 



