16 GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF RAMPART REGION. 
VEGETATION. 
The high ridges are mostly bare of trees and covered only with the brownish veg- 
etation of the tundra. The lower ridges are often covered with a dense growth of 
scattering spruce. The timber, however, is confined generally to the main valleys, 
where it is most thickly concentrated in scattering bunches along the water courses. 
Spruce is the most important tree and frequently attains a diameter of two or more 
feet. Birch and poplar are associated with it, and in the larger valleys there is a 
small proportion of tamarack. Willows and alders grow abundantly near the 
streams. There is said to be good timber in the lower valley of the Chatanika, and 
some good timber is known to occur in Tolovana Valley. Beaver Valley, where 
crossed by the Survey party, contained but a small amount of timber suitable for 
mining purposes, and the part of the valley observable from the surrounding hills 
showed but small areas of timber. The low ridges forming the eastern side of 
Beaver Valley east of the White Mountains present in places the appearance of a 
well-timbered country, but are in reality covered only with a thick growth of small 
spruce. The upper valley of Hess Creek and the open valleys of its tributaries con- 
tain also abundant small spruce with some larger timber near the streams. The val- 
ley of Minook has contained considerable timber of sufficient size for mining purposes, 
but there is only a small amount of such timber left. The valleys of the southern 
slope facing Baker Flats contain but little timber of large size, and thus far the 
resources of Hutlina and Baker valleys, where there is said to be some good timber, 
have been but little utilized. The main supply for the Rampart region must come 
from Yukon Valley or be imported, and lumber in 1904 was worth as high as $100 a 
thousand. Timber for fuel purposes is abundant in most of the valleys and on the 
lower slopes. 
Feed for horses can generally be found on the sunward-facing slopes of the main 
valleys, where there is often a luxuriant growth of grass among the birches. Grass 
grows abundantly on portions of the high bench near Rampart, and there are large 
grass-covered areas in Tolovana Flats. Vegetables can be grown easily, and at Hot 
Springs, a locality near the Tanana, they are raised in large quantities and sold to 
the miners. The Government has an experimental farm on the north side of the 
Yukon opposite Rampart, Blueberries and cranberries are almost always to be 
found in abundance, and at one locality in the Rampart region currants and red 
raspberries were being preserved for winter consumption. 
GEOLOGY. 
GENERAL FEATURES. 
The bed rock in the western part of the Yukon-Tanana country, while including 
some small areas of metamorphic schists, is made up mostly of sedimentary rocks, 
less metamorphosed than the schists lying to tne east. The prevailing color is black 
from the large amount of carbonaceous matter present in the slates, but associated 
white limestones often become prominent and in the White Mountains through their 
color and topographic development emphasize the lithologic change from the 
quartzite-schists, quartz-mica-schists, and gneisses of the Fortymile, Birch Creek, and 
Fairbanks regions to the younger-looking rocks of the western areas. A consider- 
able variety of igneous rocks occur in the vicinity of Rampart, and greenstones are 
common throughout the area. The general strike of the rocks is northeast and 
southwest. They have everywhere been closely folded and the folding seems to 
have been most intense in the Rampart region, where there has been further defor- 
mation of the rocks, resulting in some cases in brecciation. 
