collier.] MISSION CREEK. 27 
. 
conglomerate, in which the pebbles break before the cement. Lumps 
of coal and knife-edge seams of lignite were found in this conglom- 
erate. A few specimens of fossil plants were obtained from the shales, 
showing that they probably belong to the Kenai series and are certainly 
not older than the middle of the Cretaceous. 
The coal-bearing formation rests unconformably oft an older series 
of rocks made up of green slates, cherts, tuffs, and limestones, tenta- 
tively correlated by the writer with the Rampart series and believed 
to be of Devonian age. These are well exposed in the bluff immedi- 
ately below Eagle, which extends along the north side of Mission 
Creek in an almost straight east-west line, suggesting a fault scarp. 
The coal-bearing rocks seem to end abruptly at the foot of this bluff, 
but they overlap the older rocks to the south and are found forming 
the hilltops, but have been removed by erosion in the valleys. The 
structure seems to consist of low open folds. 
The coal of this belt is black, has a conchoidal fracture, and shows 
no traces of woody structure. In 1897 E. C. Barnard collected a sam- 
ple from American Creek which had the following composition: 
Analysis of coal from American Creek, 3 miles from Eagle. a 
[Analyst, W. F. Hillebrand, IT. S. Geol. Survey.] 
Per cent. 
Water 6. 75 
Volatile combustible matter 39. 13 
Fixed carbon 37. 59 
Ash 16. 53 
100.00 
Sulphur 3. 40 
Fuel ratio 96 
This coal was noncoking. 
Attempts have been made to open coal veins on American Creek and 
also on Wolf Creek, but during the summer of 1902 nothing was 
being done at either place and no definite information could be 
obtained regarding the coal seams. 
It is reported that a coal bed outcropping a short distance below the 
crossing of the Eagle-Y aides trail has been opened up and abandoned 
twice. About 4 miles up Wolf Creek, in the material thrown out of 
a prospect hole near the creek, there were pieces of coal probably 
having a high percentage of ash, and some soft sandstone. A coal 
beam is reported to have been located on a small western tributary of 
Wolf Creek near this locality. 
At the present time these coal deposits are unopened and are 
of no economic importance except as indicating the extent of the 
coal-bearing rocks in Alaska. The United States military post at 
a Brooks, Coal Resources of Alaska, p. 565. 
