86 GRAVEL AND PLACER MINING IN ALASKA. [bull. 263. 
In drifting operations on a bench of Anvil Creek, Seward Peninsula, 
a main long adit was run 4 by 6 feet 6 inches in the clear, at a cost of 
$4 a foot, untimbered, for the entire width of the ground in a direction 
transverse to that of the creek. This was 500 feet in length and was 
10 feet below the surface of the schist bed rock. The average depth 
of the ground was 20 feet, being 2 feet of muck, 11 feet of wash gravel • 
containing almost no gold, and 7 feet of pay dirt, the last consisting 
of 5 feet of pay gravel and 2 feet of bed rock, which contained the 
best pay. This was the thickness drifted. The adit served as a drain 
for the workings. The ground was only partially frozen, and it is 
likely, as has been found in parts of the Alaska interior, that the con- 
stant draining of the ground assisted in a gradual thawing of the 
frozen parts. From the end of this main adit, a long tunnel (600 feet) 
was run for the length of the ground which was to be drifted, at a 
level of 8 feet above that of the adit floor. This was timbered with 
6- by 6-inch posts, 8- by 8-inch caps, sets with 4-foot centers, lagged 
with 2- by 6-inch plank, top and sides. From this long drift cross drifts 
were run in a direction parallel to that of the main adit, at intervals 
of 100 feet, and with lengths of 40 feet on each side of the main longi- 
tudinal drift. The ground was then breasted, carrying a 40-foot face 
toward the adit. The Hidden Treasure system of timbering, using false 
sets, was employed. Track was laid both in the main adit and in the 
upper workings, and cars of 21 cubic feet capacity were employed in I 
tramming, 4 in the main adit and from 15 to 20 in the upper workings. 
The stopes never exceeded 20 feet in back and forward dimensions. 
The timbers used were 8- by 8-inch posts, 7 feet long; 10- by 10-inch 
caps, 11 feet long; 5-foot centers, all ways, between posts. Boards 
were laid down to shovel on. The ground was so heavy it was found 
impossible to save the timbers, but the track was all recovered. In 
extracting 21,000 cubic yards, timbering cost $14,000, with lumber at 
$50 per thousand. 
The gravel was trammed to surface and distributed on a long dump 
40 feet on each side of a previously constructed 24-inch .sluice 500 i 
feet long. As usual, planks were laid on top of the sluice, and when 
spring opened the gravel was caved and horse scraped into the sluice. 
In distributing the gravel on the dump 3 men and a horse scraper had 
to be employed most of the time in keeping the snow off', on account 
of especially heavy snowfalls when the work was being done. When 
completed, the dump measured 700 by 80 by 20 feet, approximately. 
The drifting work consumed nearly eleven months, and the sluicing 
about two months, being delayed on account of frost in the gravel. 
Labor employed averaged 45 men in two shifts of ten hours, at i 
winter wage of $2.50 a day and board. A shift in the drifting opera- 
tions consisted of 10 men shoveling into cars, averaging 8 cubic yards 
to the man; 3 to 4 trammers took care of the dirt shoveled. In sluic- 
