ALASKA AND ITS MINERAL RESOURCES 141 



Becker and W. H. Dall, under orders of the Director of the 

 United States Geological Survey, made examinations of the 

 coastal regions with reference to gold and coal, and in 1896 J. E. 

 Spurr, assisted by H. B. Goodrich and F. C. Schrader, made a 

 reconnaissance of the gold-bearing rocks of the Yukon district. 

 It is from the reports of these later explorers that the data con- 

 tained in the following pages have been compiled. 



GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



Alaska has an area of 580,107 square miles. It is roughly quad- 

 rangular in outline, with a panhandle extension in the southeast 

 along the coast and a peninsula stretching out into the ocean on 

 the southwest, which continues in the chain of the Aleutian 

 islands that separate Bering sea from the Pacific ocean. Its 

 eastern boundary is formed by the 141st meridian of longitude 

 west from Greenwich, and the westernmost portion of its main- 

 land, Cape Prince of Wales, is on the 168th meridian, or within 

 54 miles of the easternmost point of Asia. In latitude it extends 

 from 54° 40', the southern point of Prince of Wales island, to 

 Point Barrow, in 71° 23' north latitude, far within the Arctic 

 circle. Its greatest extent in a north-south line is thus 1,100 

 miles, and from east to west 800 miles. 



The coast-line is much broken by arms of the sea, reaching far 

 inland, either as open bays, as sounds or submerged river val- 

 leys, or as fiord-like inlets. The coast abounds in islands, which 

 cover an aggregate area of 31,205 square miles and which as a 

 rule are very mountainous. The chain of the Aleutian islands, 

 reaching nearly 1,500 miles into the Pacific ocean, is largely of 

 eruptive origin and contains many volcanic craters, some of 

 which are yet active. They rise very abruptly from the sea, often 

 to an elevation of several thousand feet, one on Unimak island 

 reaching a height of 8,955 feet. 



The Alexander archipelago and the adjoining coast strip, the 

 best-known and most frequented part of the Territory, resemble 

 the submerged portion of a narrow and precipitous mountain 

 system. The archipelago consists of 1,100 islands, the largest 

 and most southern of which is Prince of Wales island. It is in- 

 tersected by deep and relatively narrow waterways, which often 

 run far inland and bear evidence of previous occupation b}^ gla- 

 ciers. In some cases, as at Glacier bay, enormous living glaciers 

 are found at their head. The islands themselves are steep-sided, 

 and rise to an average elevation of 2,500 feet. On the seaward 



