CARBONIFEROUS 299 



or Devonian. The Stuver formation closely resembles the Nation river, 

 and as his determination of its stratigraphic relation to the Lisburne 

 rests on rather incomplete evidence, there being profoiind faulting in this 

 area, it is at least possible that the Stuver is yomiger and the equivalent 

 of the Nation Eiver formation. Such an interpretation would show a 

 strong similarity between the Carboniferous section of the Yukon and 

 the Anaktuvuk. It should be noted that Schrader reported the presence 

 of Lower Carboniferous rocks in the Anaktuvuk basin other than the 

 Lisburne formation. This statement was based on the evidence of fossils 

 referred to the Carboniferous found in stream gravels and believed to be 

 derived from some member of the Ticket series. ^"^ On the basis of this, 

 the entire Ficket series, comprising some 8,000 to 10,000 feet of very 

 lieterogeneous rocks, was provisionally assigned to the Carboniferous. 

 As no similar development of Carboniferous rocks is known in any other 

 l)art of Alaska, it seems probal)le that they are not all Carboniferous. 



At cape Lisburne, the type locality of the formation of the same name, 

 Collier^"* found some 4,500 feet of sediments making up the Lisburne 

 series and carrying Lower Carboniferous fossils. Three formations are 

 recognizalile in this series, as follows : A lower, made up of 500 feet of 

 thin-bedded argillites and limestones, with several coal beds; a middle, 

 including about 1,000 feet of clay shales, slates, cherts, and limestones; 

 and an upper, consisting of 3,000 feet of massive limestone and cherts. 

 Thougli detailed correlations can not now l)e made, it seems reasonable to 

 suppose that the Lisburne is in a general way equivalent to the Calico 

 bluff, M-hich would indicate a thickening of the lowest member of the 

 Carboniferous rocks to the w^estward. 



Crystalline limestones interbedded with black phyllites occur on the 

 eastern slope of cape ^Mountain at cape Prince of Wales, which were first 

 regarded as pre-Ordovician,^"^ but, on the evidence furnished by some 

 fossil fragments found by Collier in 1903 and 1904, Doctor Girty lias 

 assigned the horizon to the Carboniferous and states that it is probably 

 Lower Carboniferous.^"*^ This locality is of interest from the standpoint 

 of dynamic history because it is the only one in Alaska where Carbonifer- 

 ous rocks have been recognized which have suffered any considerable 

 raetamorphism. 



^0^ F. C. Schrader : A reconnaissance in northern Alasl^a. Frofessional paper no. 20, 

 U. S. Geological Survey, pp. 70-71. 



"'Arthur J. Collier: Geologj' and coal resources of the Cape Lishurne region. Bulle- 

 tin no. 278. U. S. Geological Survey, pp. 16-27. 



'"Alfred H. Brooks: Reconnaissance in Cape Nome and adjacent gold fields. Seward 

 peninsula. Special puhlication. TT. S. Geological Survey. 1001. p. 28. 



"» Arthur .T. Collier. Frank L. Iless. P. S. Smith, and Alfred H. Brooks : The gold 

 placers of parts of the Seward peninsula. Bulletin no. 328, U. S. Geological Survey, 

 p. 81. 



