20 ALASKAN MINERAL RESOURCES IN 1905. 
Mines shipping first-class coal from ports on Controller Bay, Prince William Sound 
Cook Inlet should be able to secure immediately half or possibly all of the patronage of steii 
ers running to Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet, provided the prices are right. Ala 
proportion of the patronage of the other Alaska steamers can probably be secured by si 
piag the coal either to the Alaska termini of these lines or to Puget Sound or San Francis 
The aggregate tonnage of Alaska steamers, according to reports of the Bureau of Statist] 
is now increasing at the rate of 6 per cent per annum. This rate of increase will proba 
be greater in the future. 
LOCAL SOURCES OF SUPPLY. 
Coal is widely distributed in Alaska, but because of the peculiar economic conditions 
regard to markets and cost of development and transportation it is only at favored locals 
tkat profitable coal mining may be expected in the near future. The conditions which de^ijl 
mine these localities are local demand, quality of the coal, cost of mining, and cost of trafJI 
portation. The regions which seem likely to fill these conditions in the near future are t j. 
Matanuska River and Bering River fields, near the Pacific coast, and to a less degree ill 
Seward Peninsula, Yukon River, and possibly the southwestern Alaska regions. Coal mi i| 
ing may develop on a small scale in other districts, especially should there be local marke *| 
near the coal mines. 
ANTHRACITE AND BITUMINOUS. 
BERING RIVER. 
The Bering River coal field a covers an area of about 70 square miles, including 25 squall 
miles of anthracite and 45 square miles of semianthracite (or semibituminous) coking colli 
The seams are numerous and very large; several exceed 20 feet in thickness. The averalll 
quality of the Bering River coal is excellent, several of the seams being remarkably low|B 
both ash and sulphur. 
Bering River coal is not now available for sale in any market, but there are prospects trill 
transportation will soon be provided to tide water on Controller Bay, Kat alia Bay, or Princ 1 1 
William Sound. (See map, PI. XII.) 
MATANUSKA RIVER. 
There is an area of at least 70 and possibly several hundred square miles of eoal in th i 
Matanuska Valley. This includes anthracite, semibituminous coking coal, and a lowMj 
grade of bituminous coal. The seams are of good thickness and well situated for mining 
Transportation to Resurrection Bay on the Pacific coast and into the interior will soon b j 
provided by the Alaska Central Railway now under construction. This field is described ii i 
more detail on pages 88-100. 
OTHER BITUMINOUS FIELDS. 
There is considerable high-grade semibituminous coal at Cape Lisburne & which is rathei 
inaccessible, but which may sometime find a market. Part of the coal on Yukon River c is 
a fair grade of bituminous and should with proper management find a limited local market. 
Bituminous coal of fair quality is known from several places on the Alaska Peninsula. d 
LIGNITE. 
Lignite occurs in numerous regions in Alaska, having wide distribution and great areal 
extent. Most of the information regarding it has already been summarized e and need not 
be repeated here. 
a For further description of this field see the following reports: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 225, 1904, 
pp. 365-382; Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 250, 1905, pp. 11-36; Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 259, 1905, pp. 
140-150, and this bulletin, pp. 65-77. 
b Collier, A. J., Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 259, 1905, pp. 172-185; No. 278 (in press). 
c Collier, A. J., Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 218, 1903. 
d Stone, R. W.. Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 259, 1905, pp. 151-172 
« Dall, W. II., Report on the coal and lignite of Alaska: Seventeenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Sin wy. 
pt. 1, 1896, pp. 769-908. Brooks, A. H., Coal resources of Alaska: Twenty-second Ann. Rept. U. S Geol 
Survey, pt. 3, 1902, pp. 517-571. Collier, A. J., Coal resources of the Yukon: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey 
No. 218, 1903. Stone, R. W., Coal of southwestern Alaska: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 259, 1905, pp. 
151-172. Moffit, F. H , Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 247, 1905, p. 67. 
