520 E. 31. Kindle — Section at Cape Thompson, Alaska. 



Art. XLYIII. — The Section at Cape Thompson, Alaska;* 

 by E. M. Kindle. 



Introduction. 



Cape Thompson is a promontory on the Arctic coast of 

 Alaska, located about 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle. 

 It is one of a series of bold headlands which face the sea with 

 vertical cliffs 400' to 700' high for 6 or 7 miles immediately 

 south of the delta and shore line deposits which lie about the 

 mouth of the Kukpuk River. Alluvial deposits broken by 

 lagoons form the coast line for about 40 miles northwest of 

 Cape Thompson, where the coast line is again formed by 

 cliffs and precipitous hills which continue northward to Cape 

 Lisborne. This portion of the coast is not visited by any of 

 the passenger vessels engaged in Alaskan transportation, but 

 through the courtesy of the officials of the U. S. revenue 

 cutter service and of Capt. Henderson of the revenue cutter 

 Thetis, the writer was enabled to spend a few days during the 

 past season studying the geological section exposed in the 

 vicinity of Cape Thompson. The writer's brief shore leave 

 permitted only the study of the rocks in the immediate vicin- 

 ity of Cape Thompson and a short trip up the Kukpuk River. 



Mr. R. D. Mesler assisted the writer in the field work. 

 Acknowledgments are due to Mr. Jos. Tuckfield and Mr. Jas. 

 Allen, residents of Point Hope, for their unbounded hospital- 

 ity. The writer's special thanks are also due to Mr. W. Allen 

 Richardson, teacher of the native school at Point Hope, and 

 Dr. John B. Driggs, the veteran missionary, for courtesies 

 extended, and to Capt. White for transportation on the schooner 

 South Bend. 



Previous Geologic Investigations. 



The geological section at Cape Thompson was examined in 

 1826 by Mr. A. Collie of Capt. F. W. Beechey's exploring 

 expedition. Lieut. Belcher of the expedition prepared a sec- 

 tion of the strata observed, and Mr. Collie collected fossils 

 which led Prof. Buckland to correlate the limestone with the 

 Derbyshire limestone of England. f It thus appears that this 

 extremely remote section was one of the first on the continent 

 to be correlated with European sections. 



The results of Capt. Beechey's expeditions were summarized 

 by GrewingkjJ who states that the fossils from Cape Lisburne 



* Published by permission of the Director of the U S. Geol. Survey. 



f Zoology of Capt. Beechey's Voyage, Bohn, London, 1839, pp. 171-172. 



X Grewingk, C, Beitrag zur Kentniss der orographischen und geognosti- 

 schen Beschaffenheit der Nord-West-Kiiste Amerikas mit den anliegenden 

 Inseln : Verhandl. Russ.-K. Mineral. Gesell. zu St. Petersburg, 1848 and '49 

 1850), pp. 160-161, pp. 343-344. 



