66 COAL RESOURCES OF THE YUKON. [no. 218. 
PRESENT DEVELOPMENT AND METHODS OF MINING. 
Iii 1866 Dall examined a bed of coal 7 miles below Nulato, but up 
to the time of the discovery of gold on Klondike River, in 1897, little 
was done toward opening coal mines on the Yukon. With this dis- 
covery and the consequent influx of people, the Cliff Creek mine, in 
Canadian territory, and the Nation River, Drew, Pickart, Blatchford, 
and Whelp & Thein (Williams) mines, and Coal mine No. 1, were 
opened up, and have supplied a limited amount of coal, both for 
steaming on the Yukon and for domestic purposes at Dawson. 
The methods of mining coal heretofore employed have been most 
primitive, and the workings of very limited extent, largely because 
the demand for coal is supplied by small amounts delivered on the 
river bank during the months from June to September, inclusive. 
Timber is convenient, and ventilation is easily obtained by air shafts 
to the surface, for in this climate there is always a great difference in 
temperature between the air in the mine and that outside. No trouble* 
with gas has yet been experienced, and safety lamps have not been 
required. This may be accounted for by the fact that the workings 
have not penetrated beyond the zone of perpetual frost. Care must 
be exercised with the lignites of the Circle and Rampart provinces to 
prevent spontaneous combustion after the eoal is mined. Instances are 
reported where the beds have been on lire, but none came under the 
observation of the writer. With the exception of the Drew mine, 
near Rampart, none of the mines along the Yukon, in American terri- 
tory, are equipped with bunkers or other conveniences for loading the 
eoal on steamers. The coal is piled on the river bank and loaded with 
wheelbarrows. Most of the mines are so situated that mine cars con- 
vey the coal directhy to the river's edge at the mine's mouth. At 
Nation River the coal was mined about li miles from the river and 
sledded over the snow in winter to the landing. On Washington 
Creek a similar plan is proposed until a railroad can be built. At 
Cliff Creek, the North American Transportation and Trading Com- 
pany's mine, there is a narrow-gage railroad from the river bank to 
the mine, a distance of 2J miles. At the Blatchford mine, 9 miles 
below Nulato, the coal is mined in the winter, for the opening to the 
mine is below the water at ordinary stages of the river, and during the 
summer months the mine is flooded. After the freeze-up the ice is 
mined out before the coal is reached. The coal from the mine must 
be sledded to ground above the high waters that occur on the break- 
ing of the ice in the spring. 
Since the Yukon coal beds have been worked only for the last live 
years, and then in a desultory way, the whole amount of coal pro- 
duced in American territory has not been great, probably not exceed- 
