2o 
Minerals have been found in various parts of the territory ; 
coal and iron are plainly visible to the naked eye along the 
shores on Cook’s inlet; gold has been found in paying quanti¬ 
ties ; silver, copper and bismuth have been discovered in locali¬ 
ties convenient to navigation. “ Of these little is known, and 
Prince Maksutoff, late Governor of the Russian Colonies, ac¬ 
knowledged that the company had been so persistently engaged 
in procuring furs and studying up the best methods of keeping 
up the supply, that no thorough minerological exploration had 
been made, although a large cabinet of minerological specimens 
for comparison had been furnished by the company to the chief 
establishment at Sitka. Under his directions the very few 
specimens of Alaska minerals in possession of the servants of 
the company were transferred to the coast survey and referred 
to the geologist. . . The most important discovery was 
made by the coast survey in October, 1867, in the valley at the 
head of St. John’s Bay, opening upon Newski Strait about 
seventeen and one-half miles northward of Sitka. Pieces of 
coal, largely intermixed with rock, to which their preservation 
was due, were found four or five miles along the bed of the 
small but rapid stream. After a second partial exploration, 
and obtaining large specimens, it was believed the coal was an¬ 
thracite, . . . but from all the geological evidence the 
geologist reported that the bed or beds from which it was broken 
will, if discovered, afford coal of vastly superior quality to any 
heretofore known to exist in the territory, and the government 
was advised to direct exhaustive examination of this locality. 
Recent information has been received that this coal vein, which 
has been discovered, is of great thickness, is an anthracite, has 
been burnt on a United States steamer, and reported upon fa¬ 
vorably. . . . Should petroleum come to be used as a 
steam producing fuel on steamships, there is a prospect of a 
supply being obtained from the south-east shore of Alaska 
peninsula, at or near Katmay Bay, in lat. 58° 51, long. 154° 54, 
and abreast of Kadiak islands. The governor furnished the 
coast survey with a specimen of the crude oil obtained there two 
or three years ago. The finder, a teacher in the Russian- 
American Company, reported that he found three streams in the 
above locality covered with petroleum. Specimens of fine cop¬ 
per have been gathered from various localities, but the principle 
source is on the Atna or copper river, about twenty-five or thirty 
