collier] CIRCLE PROVINCE. 21 
considerable size. Fortymile River, Seventymile River, and Charlie 
River, tributaries entering- from the south, are navigable for small 
boats and canoes. Sheep Creek (Tatandu River), Nation River 
(Tahkandit River), and Charlie Creek (Kandik River) are the larger 
tributaries from the north. 
The two important towns in the province are Circle, the supply 
point for the Birch Creek mines, and Eagle, at which place Fort 
Egbert, a United States military post, the United States custom-house, 
and the United States district court are located. Eagle is also the 
supply point for a number of placer mines located on the tributaries 
of Mission Creek and Seventymile River. It is also the Yukon ter- 
minus of the Valdes mail route. A view of the town is given in PL 
III, B. A number of small settlements, depending for their support 
on small placer mining camps, are scattered along the river between 
these points. Dawson, in Canadian territory, is about 100 miles up 
the river from Eagle; Fort Yukon, an important fur-trading post, and 
the point of departure for the Koyukuk winter trail, is 80 miles below 
Circle, at the mouth of Porcupine River. 
Below Circle the Yukon flows for 300 miles through the Yukon 
Flats. Here the river spreads out in many channels and navigation is 
difficult. A characteristic view in the flats is given in PL III, A. 
An examination of the map (PL II) will show that a belt of coal- 
bearing beds stretches from Klondike River northwestward nearly to 
the Yukon. This belt seems to be extended to the northwest by several 
isolated areas, which probably at one time formed a continuous belt. 
These Kenai terranes — for these beds all belong to that horizon— carry 
workable coal beds, which have been exploited at several localities. 
Coal beds have been opened, or partial^ opened, by prospectors on 
two "Coal" creeks in Canadian territory and on American Creek, 
Wolf Creek, and Washington Creek in American territory. Coal is 
known to occur, but has not been opened to any extent, on Coal Creek, 
a small tributary of the Yukon 60 miles above Circle; on Bonanza 
Creek, a tributary of Charlie River; and on a tributary of Seventy- 
mile River known as Washington Creek. The more important of 
these localities were visited by the writer and will be described in 
detail. Coal has also been reported from the upper Fortymile region, 
from Seventymile, and from the Porcupine, but the information is 
too vague to make it worthy of inclusion in this report. 
Coal in Canadian territory. — A coal seam was opened up near Five 
Finger Rapids on Lewes River many years ago. This seam has been 
recently developed under the name Five Finger mine/' and is now 
supplying the Dawson market. As this coal is used in competition 
with the Yukon coals, it seems best to include some notes on it, though 
a Brooks, A. H., Coal resources of Alaska: Twenty-second Ann. Rept. U.S. Geol. Survey, pt. 3, 1902, 
p. 559. 
