GENERAL STATEMENT. 7 
maps and reports, some of which have already been published by the Survey, while 
others are in preparation. 
The Fortymile, Birch Creek, and Rampart regions were visited by a survey party 
consisting of Spurr. Goodrich, and Schrader in 1896, and the results are to be found 
in the report of that expedition. « 
In 1902 Collier, in the course of an investigation of the coal resources along the 
Yukon, studied the gold placers in the southern portion of the region. & Late in the 
fall of the same year Brooks, near the close of his reconnaissance about Mount 
McKinley, traversed a portion of the Rampart region. c 
The work of all these expeditions has resulted in an accumulation of material, 
partly topographic and partly geologic, which becomes increasingly valuable to the 
people of the region in tracing the occurrence and distribution of the gold-bearing 
deposits. 
During the season of 1904 the writer, under instructions from Mr. Alfred H. 
Brooks, geologist in charge, assisted by Frank L. Hess, with a packer, cook, and 7 
horses, made a geologic reconnaissance overland from Eagle by way of Fairbanks to 
Rampart, and it was in the course of this trip that the observations were made and 
the material was collected which form the basis of this description. 
After concluding work in the Fairbanks region the party started overland from 
Cleary Creek for Rampart on the 5th of August, and on the 26th reached a tributary of 
Troublesome Creek, in the Rampart region, at a point where the Brooks party had 
camped two years before. There in 1904 the smoke of a camp fire indicated a zone 
of prospecting. The remainder of August and the first part of September were 
spent among the gold placers. On the 20th of September the party started by 
steamer up the Yukon, and reached Seattle on the 5th of October, only fifteen days 
from the time of "leaving Rampart. 
The route chosen by the party lay northwest from Cleary Creek across the White 
Mountains and the ridges beyond to the southern limit of Yukon Flats, thence 
southwest to the main divide between the Yukon and Tanana drainage systems, 
thence west along this divide to the rough hills which mark so conspicuously the 
location of the Rampart region. 
The conditions of travel by pack train in the Yukon-Tanana country are compa- 
rable with those prevailing in portions of the States and deserve no special mention. 
The horses are all used as pack animals and carry generally not more than 175 
pounds. The divides are preferred for travel, as they are mostly free from timber 
and generally afford a firmer footing than the valleys. Some of the lower divides, 
however, are thickly covered with small spruce, and in a large area east of the Ram- 
part region the moss and grass of the divides form a niggerheaded surface which 
retards the progress of the pack train. The streams within the hill country occa- 
sionally offer better conditions for travel than the divides. They can be crossed and 
recrossed at will and their gravel-covered bars can be followed sometimes for miles. 
At times of high water, however, they may impede travel. Grass grows luxuriantly 
in some of the sunward-facing draws and in portions of the larger valleys, and is 
generally in good condition from the latter part of June to at least the first of Sep- 
tember. Although the horses sometimes have difficulty in obtaining sufficient food, 
and are sometimes so tormented by mosquitoes as to be unable to eat quietly where 
there is abundance, they generally end the season in fairly good condition. 
The members of the party always received active help from all those among 
whom their labors were performed, and pleasantly remember many kindly acts of 
a Spurr, J. E., Geology of the Yukon gold district, Alaska: Eighteenth Ann. Kept. U. S. Geol. Sur- 
vey, pt. 3, 1898, pp. 87-392. 
^Collier, A. J., The Glenn Creek gold-mining district, Alaska: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 213, 
1903, pp. 49-56. _Coal resources of the Yukon, Alaska: Bull.U. S. Geol. Survey No. 218, 1903, pp. 41-43, 
(•Brooks, A. M., Exploration in the Mount McKinley region, Alaska: Prof. Paper U. S. Geol. Survej 
No.—. (In preparation.) 
