purington] LUMBER AND FUEL. 213 
district a sawmill was formerly in operation, but has been abandoned. 
At Fairbanks, in the summer of 1904, two sawmills with a total daily 
capacity of 25,000 board feet were in operation. 
Timber fires are frequent in the interior and are sometimes very 
destructive in dry seasons. There being no system of policing the 
forests for purposes of fire protection, the probability is that an 
increasingly large amount of timber will, as the population increases, 
be annually destroyed by fire. 
COAL. 
Though there are extensive a coal fields in Alaska, practically none 
of them have been exploited. Much of the coal is of a lignitic charac- 
ter, but some very good bituminous coals have been found. In the 
South Coast province good coal occurs 20 miles from the coast near 
Controller Bay 6 and in the Matanuska basin c 50 miles from the head 
of Cook Inlet. Neither of these fields are yet within reach of trans- 
portation. Lignitic coals are present at many localities along the 
Pacific coast, but these, too, are undeveloped. 
In the interior coal has been mined along the Yukon, but has not 
yet furnished a local fuel supply. The Yukon d coals include the lig- 
nite beds of the upper river and a better grade of bituminous coals 
which outcrop along the Yukon below Nulato. Lignite coal has also 
been found along the Koyukuk and on the Cantwell, a southern tribu- 
tary of the Tanana. Though these coals may in the future furnish fuel 
for placer-mining operations they are an unknown factor. 
Lignite has been found in the eastern part of Seward Peninsula, 
but its commercial value is unproved. A small mine has, however, 
been in operation in the Fairhaven district near Kotzebue Sound, 6 
and has found a ready market for its output, which is of a Hgnitic 
character. 
Near Cape Lisburne, 200 miles north of Nome/ bituminous coal 
occurs in commercial quantities, but has not yet been mined to any 
extent. It is still an open question whether it can compete with the 
imported coals. 
The fuel question in Alaska may take a new phase with the intro- 
duction of gas-producing engines, for these lignites are found to be 
very effective power producers. 
The following brief statement concerning recent? tests with the gas 
producer at the United States Geological Survey coal-testing plant, 
a Brooks, A. H., The coal resources of Alaska: Twenty-second Ann. Kept. U. S. Geol. Survey, pt. 3, 
1901, pp. 515-571. 
b Martin, G. C, Petroleum fields of Alaska and Bering River coal fields: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 
225, pp. 371-376. 
cStone, R. W., Coal resources of southwestern Alaska: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 259, pp. 151-171. 
d Collier, A. J ., The coal resources of the Yukon: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 218. 
eMoffit, F. H., The Fairhaven gold placers, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 
251, p. 67. 
/ Collier, A. J., Coal fields of the Cape Lisburne region: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 259, pp. 172-185. 
