54 COAL KESOUKCES OF THE YUKON. [no. 218 
forming the greater part of the cliff. In this sandstone there is consid- 
erable evidence of crushing* and shearing" along bedding planes. Two 
small seams of coal, which vary in thickness, but nowhere exceed 6 
inches, occur in this harder sandstone. The variation in thickness is 
probably due to shearing. 
The one coal seam which has here been worked outcrops below 
water level. When the locality was examined the opening to work- 
ings was under water and the coal was not seen in place. On the 
river bank, above high- water mark, there was a large pile of coal, 
mined last winter, but not yet used by steamers on account of the 
poor landing. This coal is very much crushed, so that from a pile of 
several hundred tons no large pieces could be obtained. The coal 
seam is reported to be irregular. Large masses, 8 feet in diameter, 
have been found and quickly mined out. Its irregularity is believed 
by the writer to be due to the shearing of the inclosing sandstones 
along the coal bed. 
This coal has been pronounced by some engineers of river steamers 
to be the best on the Yukon. In the blacksmith's forge it gives good 
satisfaction. A sample for analysis was taken from a pile containing 
40 to 50 tons mined during the winter. 
^[ikiIijs, s ';/' coal I sample No. 258) from Blatchford mine, 9 miles below Nulalo. 
[Analyst, E. T. Allen, U. S. Geol. Survey.] 
Per cent. 
Water 1. 36 
Y< datile coml >us1 ible matter 22. 44 
Fixed carbon 73. 98 
Ash 2.22 
100. 00 
Sulphur 52 
Fuel ratio. 3. 30 
It will be seen from this analysis that the coal is a high-grade bitu- 
minous, approaching semibituminous. The fuel ratio, 3.3, and the 
low percentage of water and ash make it by proximate anatysis the 
best coal seen by the writer on the Yukon. 
In 1806 Dall examined a coal cropping below Nulato in this imme- 
diate vicinity, if not this identical bed. His description is as follows: 
About 7 miles from Nulato, on the south side of a level space or flat, a small bluff 
appears, at the extreme end of which the sandstones are nearly vertical. Here, 
between two contorted layers of shaly rock, a small coal seam was examined in 
December, 1866. It has been squeezed out above and below, forming a mere pocket 
about 2 feet thick and not over 20 feet long on the exposed face. The shales con- 
tained obscure vegetable remains, but were much altered, probably by the heat 
evolved at the time they were folded. The average dip is north 45°. The coal is 
good, but there are apparently only a few tons of it. The shales are conformable 
with the brown sandstone, which, however, is a marine formation in which this 
deposit of lignite is a very exceptional incident. « 
a Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 84, 1892, p. 247. 
