THE HERENDEEN BAY COAL FIELD. 
By Sidney Paige. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The presence of coal in the Herendeen Bay region has been known for a number of years, 
but though several attempts have been made toward its exploitation, little has yet been 
mined. During the last season the writer was able to spend four days in an examination 
of this area incidentally to his other field work. In this time observations were of necessity 
hasty and only a small area (2 square miles in addition to the route of travel) could be exam- 
ined. 
Herendeen Ba}^ is an arm of Port Moller, with which it forms the only deep embayment in 
the Bering Sea side of the Alaska Peninsula. (See map, PI. II.) The bay lies between lati- 
tudes 55° 40' and 55° 55' north and longitudes 160° 37' and 160° 56' west. The coal field 
visited occupies an area of about 1 square mile, 5 miles from the head of the bay and 1J 
miles from the east side. (See sketch map, fig. 6.) The peninsula is here nearly severed 
by deep indentations of the coast line, Port Moller and Herendeen Bay on the Bering Sea 
side approaching within 8 miles of Portage and Stepovak bays on the Pacific side. 
Portage Bay is narrow and V-shaped, mountains rising steeply 1,800 feet or more from the 
water's edge. Near its seaward end a small arm indents its eastern shore. Stepovak Bay, 
on the other hand, is a wide, rough, semicircular embayment whose northernmost shore 
approaches within about 8 miles of Port Moller. 
Herendeen Bay and Port Moller, which together make a broad reentrant in the otherwise 
regular coast line, are separated by a tongue of land narrowing from a width of about 14 
miles near their heads to a sharp point at their common entrance. The mouth of Herendeen 
Bay is narrowed by the presence of Deer Island, but there is a good channel between it and 
the mainland. 
The water varies in depth, being 25 to 40 fathoms near the head of the bay and 10 to 14 
fathoms as the entrance is approached. These depths are confined to a narrow channel, 
especially in the outer parts. Port Moller, except for a small channel midway bet ween 
its shores, has widely developed tidal flats. 
The chain of mountains which forms the backbone of the Alaska Peninsula is the domi- 
nating topographic feature of the region. The highest peaks, from 2,500 to 3,000 feet in 
elevation in the vicinity of Herendeen Bay, are sharp and rugged, cirques and other evi- 
dences of glacial erosion being common on the upper slopes. The range is broken by a 
low divide 500 feet in elevation, 3 miles from the Pacific side, from which streams flow 
northward and southward, emptying into Herendeen and Portage bays, respectively. An 
excellent trail crosses at this point. The northward-flowing stream descends gradually to 
the bay, its valley flattening and broadening as the sea is approached. One mile from its 
mouth a tributary enters from the west, the two forming a broad valley of very low grade. 
The southward-flowing stream is more precipitous in its fall and holds its grade until within 
one half mile of Portage Bay, when it crosses a narrow strip of lowland. 
The slopes on either side of the trail rise to the general level of the mountain range. Two 
large streams besides that already described enter the head of Herendeen Bay on its cast cm 
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