46 COAL RESOURCES OF THE YUKON. [no. 218. 
Fork. North of Lignite Creek, and apparently higher in the series, 
seams of fibrous impure lignites and carbonaceous shales are not uncomj 
monly interbedded with the sandstones. It is not likely that any of 
these have any prospective commercial value. In the opinion of the 
writer the best coals in the basin are near the base of the sandstone 
series. 
Topographically these coal seams are exceptionally well located for 
mining. Though they have been known since 1898, the isolation of 
the locality has precluded any possibility of their development. Should 
a railway ever be built through Caribou Pass from Cook Inlet, as has 
been proposed, it is quite possible that this coal field might receive 
development. 
NULATO PROVINCE. 
Under this heading the coal beds included in the large area of sand- 
stone and shale extending from the Melozi to the mouth of the Yukon 
will be described. Within this province the Yukon Hows with a slow 
current and is often divided into several channels. Along the right 
bank there is a series of bluffs and hills, rising generally to a bench 
from 100 to 400 feet above the river. On the left bank the flood 
plains extend back for a distance of from 5 to 20 miles, and the hills 
are usually not visible from the river. The writer does not know of i 
any outcrops of bed rock along the left bank of the Yukon within 
this province. The most important tributaries from the north side 
are the Koyukuk, which is the largest, Nulato, Kaltag, Anvik, and] 
Clear (or Andreafski) rivers. Yuka, Kaiyuh, and Innoko rivers are 
important southern tributaries. Nulato, the largest Indian village inj 
the interior of Alaska, and the principal town in the province, is 
about 25 miles below the mouth of the Koyukuk. A trading post! 
has been maintained here for man}' years. There is also a mission 
maintained by the Roman Catholic Church. A view of this village is 
shown in PI. VI, B. 
At Kaltag, a small trading post and post-office about 40 miles below 
Nulato, the telegraph line and winter mail route leave the Yukon and 
follow Kaltag River nearly to its head, then cross the divide to Una 
laklik River, and extend dowm that river to Norton Sound. At Koser 
efski the Holy Cross Catholic mission is the chief institution. Below 
Koserefski, Pimute, and Russian Mission are Eskimo villages, and 
Andreafski furnishes winter quarters for a large part of the fleet of 
Yukon steamers. 
In this field coal beds are found along the Yukon for a distance of 200 
miles. These coal beds resemble one another both in the character of 
the coal and in its mode of occurrence, and in these particulars they 
differ from the upper Yukon coals. The coal-bearing sandstones 
outcrop along the right bank of the Yukon, which forms the south- 
