Coal ill tJie Yakutat System. 169 



monious facts, and accounts for the superposition of the St. Ehas 

 schist upon rocks of the Yakutat system. 



Coal has been discovered in the rocks of the Yakutat system 

 about two miles west of the southern end of Disenchantment 

 bay, and is reported to be of workable thickness. I saw thin 

 lignite seams at the surface at this locality, but as the shafts were 

 filled with water I was unable to examine the coal in the open- 

 ings, and cannot vouch for its thickness. Samples obtained from 

 the mine show it to be a black lignite which would apparently 

 be of value for fuel. Fossil leaves are reported to occur in con- 

 nection with the lignite, but these have never been seen by any 

 one who could identify them. 



The rocks of the Yakutat system, wherever seen, dip north- 

 eastward, except when greatly disturbed near fault-lines. East 

 of Disenchantment bay the inclination of the beds is from 15° to 

 20° ; farther westward the dip increases gradually all the way to 

 the Hitchcock range, where the prevailing inclination is from 

 30° to 40°, and frequently still greater. Beneath Mount Malas- 

 pina and Mount St. Elias the Yakutat sandstones dip northeast- 

 ward at an angle of about 15°, and in the hills west of Icy- bay 

 the dip is about the same. Exceptions to the prevailing dips 

 occur along the immediate shore of Yakutat bay, northwest of 

 Knight island, and at the southern extremity of each of the 

 mountain S^urs between Yakutat bay and Blossom island. At 

 these localities the rocks are frequently vertical or nearly so, owing 

 their high dip to the proximity of lines of displacement. The 

 faults indicated by these unusual dips also mark the boundary 

 between the mountains and the seaward-stretching plateau of 

 alluvium and ice. 



The crushing, overthrusting and faulting that has affected the 

 rocks of this system render it doubtful whether the coal seams 

 which occur in it, even if of requisite thickness, can be worked to 

 advantage. Some of the samples of coal obtained at the open- 

 ings made near Yakutat bay were slickensided, showing that 

 moyements in the coal seam had there taken place. 



As already stated, the rocks of the Yakutat series are remark- 

 ably uniform in character throughout the extent now known, 

 and offer but little variety. The sandstones are intersected in 

 every direction by thin quartz seams, which stand in relief on 

 the weathered surfaces, giving the rocks a peculiar and charac- 



