226 GRAVEL AND PLACER MINING IN ALASKA. [bull. 268. 
Two miles from the town of White Horse, Yukon Territory, on the 
road to the copper deposits, is an excellent stretch of corduroy road 
extending* over a marshy piece of unfrozen ground. The 6-inch tim- 
bers used for lagging have all been flattened on the upper side for a 
width of 15 feet in the central portion, so that a rough wagon track is 
formed. Thus a much evener wear on the lagging is maintained than 
would be the case if the timbers were left in their original round 
condition. 
CENTRAL YUKON PROVINCE. 
Mr. Alfred H. Brooks, in his article entitled "Placer Mining in 
Alaska in 1903," a has suggested the following routes for Government 
roads in the central Yukon province of Alaska: 
(1) A road from Eagle to the Tanana, the Chistochina, and to Valdez, on the 
coast, a distance of approximately 400 miles. This probably should follow the present 
well-established trail, which is used as winter and summer mail route. The most 
important part of the road would be that between Eagle and the camps of the Forty- 
mile region. An alternate route would be to Fairbanks, on the Tanana, from Copper 
River by way of the Delta River valley, a distance of about 300 miles. (2) A road 
to extend from Circle, on the Yukon, through the Birch Creek and Fairbanks dis- 
trict to the Tanana, a distance of about 150 miles. (3) Rampart, on the Yukon, to 
be connected with the mouth of Baker Creek, on the Tanana, by a road which would 
open up the Minook and Baker districts, a distance of less than 50 miles. (4) A 
hundred miles or so of road to be built in the Koyukuk region to connect the gold- 
bearing creeks with the head of steamboat navigation on Koyukuk River. It is 
believed that these roads would form a system of .main arteries by which most of the 
placer fields could easily be reached, and that the production- of the mines would 
thereby be so much increased as to fully justify the expense. 
Well-constructed roads following the above routes would result in 
making freight rates in the placer districts which the roads would 
traverse one-fourth less than at present. The operations in the Birch 
Creek and New Fairbanks placer districts, for example, are directly 
dependent on prices of supplies laid down on the claims. The pay 
streaks in the broad creek valleys frequently become wider and wider 
as freight rates become lower. Such a statement would appear absurd 
if applied to regions where the charge for freighting represents only 
a small percentage of the original cost of the commodities. Where, 
however, the cost of material, especially machinery, is rendered double 
or more by freight charges, transportation facilities become a highly 
important factor in considering whether a given piece of ground is or 
is not workable. Prices for mining supplies in the town of Fairbanks, 
the supply point for the new gold-placer region on tributaries of 
Tanana River, are by no means cheap. As compared with prices on 
the claims which lie from 15 to 25 miles inland, however, they are 
a Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 225, 1904, p. 57. 
