COAL. 113 



The Corwin mines were operated to some extent during the summer of 1901 by 

 the Arctic Development Company, who disposed of the coal in the Nome market, 

 mostly for domestic purposes, where it is said to readily command $18 or |20 per 

 ton in competition with the Comax or Washington coal at $25 per ton. 



As it is only on the exposed edges of the veins in the face of the beach bluff that 

 mining has thus far been carried on, it may be that the quality of the coal will 

 improve somewhat with depth, but presumably not to an important extent, since at a 

 distance of 10 to 15 feet below the surface the coal appears bright, firm, dry, 

 and unweathered. 



There is undoubtedly a large amount of coal in the region of the Corwin mines, 

 but there are no harbor facilities. The beach is exposed to heavy surfs, much as it 

 is at Nome, and the water is shallow, so that ocean vessels do not often approach 

 within three-eighths of a mile of the shore. The coal is loaded aboard the vessels by 

 bghters, as at Nome, which, as it can be accomplished only at periods of quiet weather 

 or favorable wind, is, to say the least, expensive, uncertain, and tedious. A project 

 of constructing an aerial tramway for loading purposes, from the bluff out to the 

 anchorage of the vessels, is said to be under consideration. 



The claims in the vicinity of the mines have been taken up, mostly by the Arctic 

 Development Company of San Francisco, whose reported plan of future development 

 work includes the sinking of a shaft on one of the large middle veins, and cross- 

 cutting to the others. 



Area south of Cape Lishirne. — Westward, toward Cape Lisburne, the Corwin 

 series, in which the coals of the Thetis and Corwin mines occur, is supposed to give 

 way to Paleozoic rocks, for the limestone cliffs 4 miles south of Cape Lisburne are 

 known to contain Devonian corals and other forms. At about one-third of a mile 

 north of this limestone locality, according to Mr. A. Gr. Maddren, who explored this 

 section of the coast in 1900, there is a 4- to 5-foot vein of coal in shale, which dips 

 north at an angle of 60°. This is at a point about one-third of a mile north of the 

 coral limestone locality. This coal, Mr. Maddren thinks, is considerably older than 

 that of the Corwin and Thetis localities. He reports: 



" It is hard and breaks with a bright fracture. It was tried in the galley stove 

 and gave a more intense fire than Nanaimo coal. The engineers said there was not 

 enough underdraft beneath the main boiler to burn this coal fast enough for steam- 

 ing purposes, that it was too hard and needed forced draft. The only point that 

 seems to be against this coal is its lack of weight. It seems to have a low specific 

 gravity, but this may be only at the surface, where it is leached out by the weather." 



The low specific gravity here mentioned would seem to place this coal in the 

 same class with the Corwin coals, and suggests its possibly being a specimen some- 

 what more highly altered by metamorphism. Whether it is of greater geologic age 

 than the Corwin, as supposed by Mr. Maddren, can not definitely be stated, but it 

 189— No. 20—04 8 



