172 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ALASKA 



The most important known coal field is on the east shore of 

 Cook inlet, on the Kenai peninsula. Here the coal beds cover 

 an area of 70 by 30 miles and rise in high bluffs 2.000 feet above 

 the sea. At Kachemak bay, where is the only good harbor, there 

 are six or seven seams, the thickest of which is four feet thick. 

 Several shiploads of the coal, which is of fair average quality, 

 have been taken out. 



Along either shore of the Alaskan peninsula and on islands 

 adjoining them and in the Aleutian chain for some distance be- 

 yond Unalaska coal strata are reported, and have been worked or 

 opened at Amalik harbor, Unga island, and Chignik bay, on the 

 south shore, and at Herendeen bay, on the north shore of the 

 peninsula. 



North of the Yukon, coal beds are reported at several points 

 along Norton sound, on the Kowak river, which empties into 

 Kotzebue sound, and on the banks of a river entering into Wain- 

 wright inlet, on the Arctic ocean. The Cape Lisburne coal field 

 extends in a general way from Cape Lisburne to Cape Beaufort, 

 a distance of 25 miles; this coal has been extensively used by 

 steam whalers. 



In the interior, coal strata have been observed at or near An- 

 dreafski, Kaltag, Nulato, and Melozikakat, on the Lower Yukon. 

 Three seams have been mined on the right bank of the Yukon 

 in the Lower Ramparts at Coal creek, and coal has been taken 

 from Coal creek, which enters the Yukon from the north. There 

 is some evidence of a considerable development of coal-bearing 

 strata extending in either direction from this point nearly parallel 

 with the Yukon river and not far north of it. Although these 

 coals are rather light, their proximity to the gold fields promises 

 to render them of considerable industrial importance. 



THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ALASKA 

 By Hon. George C. Perkins, U. S. S. 



A bill making provision for the civil government of Alaska is 

 now before Congress and may become a law, but pending its 

 passage the political organization of the Territory is as follows : 



The executive head of the territorial government is the gov- 

 ernor, appointed by the President. The code of laws of the Ter- 

 ritory is that which was in force in the State of Oregon on May 



