collier] COAL IN CANADIAN TERRITORY. 25 
Analysis by fast coking. 
Coke of lignite from upper working, feebly coherent, tender. 
Coke of lignite from lower working, noncoherent. 
A considerable quantity of coal from Cliff Creek mines was shipped to Dawson 
during the past season for heating purposes, and it is also used by a number of the 
river steamers with satisfactory results. The coal is sold on the wharf at the mouth 
of Cliff Creek for $10 a ton, and in Dawson for $20 a ton and upward. A narrow- 
gauge railway has been built from the workings to the river, and the mine is now in 
a condition to supply a large demand. 
The writer visited Coal Creek in the course of the present investi- 
gation. This stream joins the Yukon from the right, about 4 miles 
above the mouth of Cliff Creek. It flows nearly west, and forks about 
6 miles from the Yukon. Coal has been located on both forks. The 
localities visited by the writer are on the main or east fork about 10 to 
12 miles from the Yukon. 
The coal-bearing sandstones lie unconformably on the edges of older 
schistose rocks which are exposed occasionally along- the trail from the 
river up to within a mile of the coal croppings. 
The main creek, where it cuts the coal-bearing- beds, flows approxi- 
mately west and probably follows the axis of an anticline. 
Coal seams were examined in three places. In the upper opening a 
tunnel 100 feet long- runs into the hill south of the creek on a coal bed 
which has been crushed and broken either by a local surface slide or 
by a fault. About one-fourth of a mile west of this point a slope 
tunnel (dip 33° S., strike N. 60° E.) was being- driven into the south 
bank of the creek, in which the following* section was exposed: 
Section on south bank of Coal Creek. 
Ft. in. 
Coal 6 
Clay parting 2 
Coal 4 6 
Above the coal is a soft, slippery shale, which the miners called 
"soapstone." The floor of the coal bed is a similar "soapstone," 
below which there is harder sandstone containing- fossil leaves. 
One-half mile west nearly 20 feet of coal outcrops in the north bank 
of the creek, with the following section: 
/Section on north bank of Coal Creek. 
Ft. in. 
Coal with 5 mining partings, all under 1 inch 14 
Bony coal 2 
Clay 1 
Coal 18 
A comparison with these two sections suggests that there are two 
workable coal seams in this locality. 
The soft sandstone underlying* this bed and the cla}^ seam included 
in it carried abundant fossil leaves, the most common species being 
conifers, referred by Knowlton to the Upper Eocene. The coal can, 
