LODE MINING IN SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA. 
By V. E. and C. W. Wright. 
INTRODUCTION 
In southeastern Alaska the last year has been one of unusual activity in mining explora- 
tion and development. In general, operations have fortunately been concentrated on lim- 
it. •(! areas with the result thai several new mines now promise well as future ore producer! 
Of the five mining recording districts into which southeastern Alaska is divided the 
Juneau and Ketchikan districts have made the most decided advances, with the Skagway, 
Wrangell, and Sitka districts follow '11112; in the order named. It is the purpose of this papa 
to give a brief description of the recent economic developments, introduced by a few general 
statements on the geography and geology. 
GEOGRAPHY. 
The geographic position of southeastern Alaska is unique in many ways. Bordered or 
one side by the Pacific Ocean and on the other by the Coasl Range, it extends as a narroi 
strip northwestward from Toil land (anal for over 500 miles to Mount St. Elias, nea 
Yakutat Bay. It includes a mainland belt with an outlying archipelago broken by nar 
row, deep salt-water channels or fiords. 
The timber resources of the country are considerable and form one of its most permanen 
assets. Hemlock, spruce, and yellow and red cedar const i tut e the lumber of economic \ aim 
The Government has wisely added several of the huge islands in this portion of Alaska to it 
foresi reserve, thereby insuring intelligent use of the timber at the present time and preser 
vat ion and protection for the future. Though the establishment of this new forest reserv 
appears in some respects to have placed a restraint on the prospector, yet the provisions o 
the law in regard to mining within the reservation are liberal. a 
GEOLOGY. 
The geologic structure of southeastern Alaska has had a marked influence on its top< 
graphic development. In a broad way the consideration of its structural features resolves 
itself into that of the Coast Range granite belt, with the outlying granite masses and ofj 
the intruded rocks (PI. XI). The backbone of the Coast Range consists of an immense 
granite belt many hundred miles in length and 30 to 100 miles in width. Similarly the 
cores of several of the islands are composed of intrusive granite masses. The intruded 
st rata are arranged in long bands striking usually parallel to the trend of the Coast Range 
in a northwesterly direction and dipping cither northeast or less frequently southwest at 
variable angles. They consist of slates, sandstones, conglomerates, limestones, and other 
sedimentary rocks with intercalated tuffs and intrusive bands of greenstone, all of which 
are folded and faulted and so profoundly metamorphosed that their original character has 
often been entirely obliterated. Of these various rock types the most prominent perhaps 
o The Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture has issued a book of regulations and instruc- 
tions—The Use of the National Forest Reserve— a copy of which can be secured from the forest officer M 
Ketchikan, or from the Secretary of Agriculture at Washington, D. C. 
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