30 GRAVEL AND PLACER MINING IN ALASKA. [bull. 263. 
Mining operations have been made difficult by the short available 
season, the lack of grade to the streams, poor water supply, poverty 
of timber resources, high cost of labor and transportation, concentra- 
tion of gold on and in the bed rock, and comparatively large thickness 
of barren overburden, the frozen, or worse still, half-frozen condition 
of the gravel, lack of wagon roads, and inadequate mining and police 
regulations. In spite of these obstacles the wide and fairly uniform 
distribution of alluvial gold over large areas of Alaska, hitherto unex- 
ploited, the uniformly healthy and even enjoyable climate of the 
country, and the near proximity of the phenomenally rich gold fields 
of the British Yukon Territory, offer a certain justification for the 
present energetic prospecting and mining for gold over so extensive 
an area. 
The main impressions derived from an inspection of the placer gold 
fields of the north are as follows: (1) Operations requiring the instal- 
lation of expensive plants are frequently undertaken before adequate 
sampling of the ground has been done; (2) the methods of mining and 
conveying the auriferous material, while often leaving much to be 
desired from the standpoint of economy, are, in the main, developing 
along favorable lines; (3) the gold- washing and gold-saving appliances 
in use are, in numerous cases, inexcusably crude and inefficient. 
The winning of gold from alluvial material is a business difficult 
both to learn and to conduct successfully. The careful miner, like the 
careful manufacturer, will give as much attention to one part of his 
business as to another, irrespective of the scale on which it is conducted. 
The extensive but not remarkably rich gold-bearing area of Alaska 
offers a field for men who propose to conduct their operations with 
energy, intelligence, and economy. To others it can afford only 
ultimate poverty and despair. 
The South Coast province is characterized by heavy grades, abundant 
water supply, and good timber. Gold-bearing gravels are, however, 
distributed in small quantity and, however good the conditions for the 
installation of hydraulic plants, the province remains an unimportant 
producer of alluvial gold. 
The Interior province promises to continue for many years a fairly 
important producer. Geographically considered, the phenomenal 
Canadian deposits of the Klondike come under this province. No 
gravels approaching the Klondike deposits in richness have been found 
on the American side, but a large area yet remains to be prospected. 
Owing to the topographic conditions, low grades to creeks, and 
insufficient water supply at an available elevation, hydraulicking on 
any but the smallest scale is impossible. Many of the creek deposits 
are shallow, and, besides the primitive method of shoveling into sluice 
boxes so largely in practice, there is a considerable field for the instal- 
lation of horse-scraping methods and the installation of simple mechan- 
