>urington] METHODS OF MINING, AND CONDITIONS. 33 
bion with Cleary. In all other portions of the district, so far as 
leveloped, drift mining according- to the Klondike system of thawing 
either by steam or hot-water hydraulicking, hoisting, and conveying 
by means of the self -dumping bucket on cable tram Avill probably be 
found most economical. I would suggest the method of underground 
tiot-water hydraulicking to the miners of Cleary Creek, while on 
Fairbanks Creek steam thawing appears to be advisable. The 
efficiency of the hot-water method as used in the Klondike is from 5 
X) 6 cubic yards per horsepower generated in the boiler as against 
3 cubic yards with steam. The method can, however, be applied only 
inder pertain favorable conditions. 
In Seward Peninsula the greater rainfall, larger catchment areas 
it the heads of the long rivers, and the comparative cheapness with 
which ditches can be constructed has led to the investment of much 
capital in long water conduits. For example, a ditch system of 54 
piles, built at an expenditure of $300,000 and costing $15,000 annually 
to maintain, supplies 2,000 miner's inches of water at 360 feet head for 
Pour months in the year. Approximately 200 miles of ditches have 
been built in various parts of the peninsula. Excavations of earth- 
work for ditch building in the peninsula average $1 per cubic } r ard. 
Hydraulicking without the use of hydraulic lifts is economically 
impossible, except in extremely rare cases. Bench gravels in the 
front of Anvil Mountain, facing the sea, can be hydraulicked if water 
it a sufficient head can be obtained at an expense which is not pro- 
hibitive. The remarkable ancient gravel channel which cuts the 
southern portion of the peninsula from east to west, extending from 
Fish River along Casadepaga and Kuzitrin rivers to Port Clarence, 
lies at so low a level that the present streams have not cut through 
t to bed rock. Except where subordinate pay streaks exist in it 
ibove the present stream, therefore, the physiographic conditions 
will forbid its gravels being hydraulicked, while any other form of 
)pen cutting is manifestly impossible. It has been little explored, 
,nd portions of it may be found rich enough to drift. 
| Horse scraping, steam or power scraping, derricking, and the appli- 
ation of the mechanical shovel, accompanied in most cases by ground 
uicing of the frozen muck, should receive consideration from the 
reek operators in Seward Peninsula, where the deposits are less 
tian 15 feet in depth. The low price of winter labor ($2.50 a day and 
oard) should permit of an increasing amount of winter drifting work 
iroughout the peninsula. 
It will doubtless eventually be found that the power of water under 
•essure can be more successfully applied to the working of the 
Jrerage Seward Peninsula placer by generating electric power and 
{implying it to various mechanical devices. While it can not be denied 
I Bull. 263—05 3 
