collier.] STREAM TIN ON BUCK CREEK. 29 
west is another granite area, smaller and much less prominent than 
that forming the Asses Ears. These two localities are situated south of 
the Sound and, since they are not favorable places for placer gold, 
have been rarely visited. A third granite area makes up the central 
mass of the elevated watershed between Kiwalik and Buckland rivers. 
This range extends from Kotzebue Sound to within a few miles of 
Koyuk River, a distance of about 40 miles. Here the granites are 
found only in the higher central part of the mass, and are surrounded 
by later eruptives, including andesitic rocks and lavas which form the 
lower hills. 
These granites are all variable in their texture, and often have an 
extremely coarse, pegmatitic appearance. Twinned orthoclase feld- 
spars, 2 or 3 inches in length and three-fourths of an inch thick, are 
not uncommon, and hornblende crystals of large size are found in 
places. Locally, quartz seems to be absent and the rock becomes 
syenitic in character. Fluorite was seen in joint planes in the granites 
northwest of the Asses Ears, suggesting the possible presence of tin 
ores such as occur with this mineral in the western part of Seward 
Peninsula. 
Dr. Cabell Whitehead, of the Alaska Banking and Safe Deposit 
Company, reports the presence of cassiterite in the form of line sand 
in gold taken from Old Glory Creek, which heads up toward the lime- 
stone area in which the previously mentioned granite masses of the 
Asses Ears region occur. 
LOCALITIES WHERE STREAM TIN HAS BEEN FOUND. 
BUCK CREEK." 
Buck Creek was the scene of the first actual mining of tin ore in 
Alaska, and is the present center for tin-placer mining activities. This 
settlement is on the Arctic slope of Seward Peninsula, about 20 miles 
northeast from York, and -i miles from tide water on Lopp Lagoon, 
an inlet from the Arctic Ocean. It is reached by a wagon road from 
York, which follows the bed of Anikovik River for 10 miles, then 
crosses a low divide to Grouse Creek and follows Grouse Creek to its 
junction with Buck Creek. This road is fairly good, except for 1^ 
miles of soft tundra b on the divide between Anikovik River and Grouse 
Creek, where it is almost impassable for heavy wagons. A good road- 
bed could easily be built here by bringing gravel from Anikovik 
River. Lopp Lagoon is not navigable for seagoing vessels and affords 
no harbor for such craft. It is a large, shallow body of water, sepa- 
aThis description of the tin placers of Buck Creek is based on the work of Mr. Frank L. Hess. 
bThe Standard Dictionary gives the following definition of " tundra:" "A rolling plain of Russia 
and Siberia, covered with moss and at times very moist and marshy." "The 'tundras' of northern 
latitudes are frozen plains of which the surface is covered with arctic mosses and other plants."— 
Archibald Geikie, Text-Book of Geology. 
