ALASKA AND ITS MINERAL RESOURCES 171 



ity of Cape Lisburne, is a coal field of considerable extent con- 

 taining a fuel which is believed to be of greater geological age, 

 perhaps similar to that so extensively mined at Nanaimo and 

 other points in British Columbia. As rocks of Carboniferous age 

 occur in close proximity to this coal, it was long supposed to 

 belong to the Paleozoic coal measures, like that of Pennsylvania, 

 but -an examination of the fossil plants actually associated with 

 it has shown this opinion to be erroneous. 



The various coals of Alaska occur in beds interstratified with 

 sandstone, shale, conglomerate, and clay, these rocks usually con. 

 taining numerous fossil plants, leaves, cones, and amber derived 

 from the fossilization of resin from the ancient coniferous forests. 

 The geological formation containing the coal and leaf-bearing 

 shales is called the Kenai formation, and is usually covered by 

 beds of sandstone containing fossil oysters and other shells be- 

 longing to the Miocene or middle Tertiary. 



like all Tertiary coals, the Alaska mineral is light in propor- 

 tion to its bulk, burns rapidly with little smoke, and has a ten- 

 dency to break up into small pieces under the action of the 

 weather. The glance coal is brilliant and clean to handle, like 

 anthracite, for which it is often mistaken, but which, bulk for 

 bulk, is considerably heavier. The brown coal gives a brown 

 instead of a black streak when scratched, has the appearance of 

 fossil wood, and in drying splits up into chip-like pieces. The 

 coal-bearing strata are comparatively widespread both along 

 the coast and in the interior, but as yet but few beds have been 

 actually worked. 



In the Alexander archipelago, on Admiralty island, coal seams 

 and leaf-bearing shales crop out at a number of points along the 

 shores of Kootznahoo inlet, and a mine has been opened from 

 which considerable non-coking coal has been extracted at the 

 head of Davis creek, near Killisnoo village, about 40 miles north- 

 east of Sitka. 



Coal or coal-bearing strata are also reported on Prince of 

 Wales island, near Kasahan bay ; on Lindenberg peninsula of 

 Kupreanof island ; on the northeast and also on the west side 

 of Kuiu island ; on the southern point and in Seymour canal, on 

 the western side of Admiralty island ; at Whale bay, on Baranof 

 island, 23 miles southeast of Sitka, and at various points on 

 Chichagof island, northwest of that place. Similar occurrences 

 are reported at Lituya and Yakutat bays, on the southwest flanks 

 of the St Eli as range. 



