278 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY, 1902. [bull. 213. 
Creek, a tributary of Charley River, about 10 miles northwest of the 
Washington Creek Basin. 
Coal Creek, about 11 miles below Charley River, has coal of a sim- 
ilar character. These deposits are about 6 miles from the Yukon, 
and they have not yet been successfully exploited. 
Nation River mine. — The localities thus far described all lie on the 
south side of the Yukon and seem to belong to a series of Kenai 
basins which extends from the Klondike River, in Canadian terri- 
tory, northwest to Coal Creek, in American territory, a distance of 
about 160 miles. 
On the north side of the Yukon, 52 miles below the international 
boundary, coal outcrops, and has been mined to some extent on Tah- 
kandit or Nation River, 1^ miles from the Yukon. The coal-bearing 
formation extends down the Yukon for several miles and is generally 
more intensely folded than the sandstones above described. From 
the evidence in hand it may be regarded either as Permian or a later 
formation, presumably Kenai, infolded with Permian rocks. 
The coal is distinctly bituminous, having a fuel ratio of 1.39 and a 
water content of 1.39 per cent. The ash percentage is 3.04, while the 
percentage of sulphur is very high as compared with other Yukon 
coal, being 2.98 per cent. This coal shows no vestige of woody struc- 
ture and in the laboratory makes a good coke. The coal has been 
intensely crushed and affected, probably by a shearing movement of 
the inclosing sandstone, so that the bed is not well defined, but the 
coal was found in lenses and kidneys often as large as 8 feet thick 
and 13 feet long. 
In 1897 the Alaska Commercial Company attempted to open a coal 
mine at this place. About 2,000 tons" of coal were mined and sledded 
to a landing on the Yukon River. Owing to the irregularity of the 
bed and the consequent uncertainty of the suppl} 7 and expense of 
mining it was abandoned several years ago. 
MIDDLE YUKON PROVINCE. 
Between the Upper Yukon and Middle Yukon provinces, along the 
river, there is a break of about 300 miles in which there are no coal 
beds known. 
Dall River. — On Dall River, which enters the Yukon from the north 
side, at the lower end of the Yukon Flats and about 450 miles below 
the international boundary, a coal bed occurs, 70 miles from the Yukon, 
in shales which are supposed to belong to the Kenai series. This coal 
bed contains irregular streaks of clay, but the lower 4 or 5 feet of the 
seam are believed to be of good quality. No practical tests and no 
analyses of the coal have been made. b 
a For estimates of the amounts of coal produced the writer is indebted to Mr. W. E. Williams, 
a mining engineer who has had charge of coal mines on the Yukon since 1897. 
&Mendenhall, W. C, Reconnaissance from Fort Hamlin to Kotzebue Sound: Professional Paper 
U. S. Geol. Survey No. 10, 1902. 
