102 
ALASKAN MINERAL RESOURCES IN 1905. 
side. They occupy broad, flat valleys, rising with easy grades to the mountains farther 
east. One of these, Lawrence Creek, enters 2 miles south of the coal field and flows slightly 
south of west. Near its head a fork enters from the southeast. The second stream, Grass 
River, flows northwestward and enters Herendeen Bay 1 mile south of Lawrence Creekj 
and 1J miles from the head of the bay. The two streams are separated by a steep ridgej 
Coal Creek is a short stream entering from the east, 5 miles from the head of the bay. In 
its upper course it falls rapidly, but near its mouth a well-defined alluvial plain is formed. 
The seaward extension of parallel ridges and the shallow depths found in the bays indi- 
cate a period of subsidence, when partial drowning of the drainage occurred, followed by 
a silting up of the valleys and in part of the bays. 
A small bay at the mouth of Coal Creek affords an excellent harbor, with good anchorage, 
entirely protected from storms, within a mile and a half from the outcrop of coal visited. 
Vegetation on this portion of the peninsula is confined to the valleys and the lower slopes 
of the hills. Willow and alder, wirli plants of a herbaceous nature, are found. Timber of 
sufficient size for even local use is entirely lacking. 
Though it is said that at times during the winter months ice completely covers the bay, 
it i- very improbable that its thickness would interfere materially with the navigation ofi 
an ocean-going ship or that pack ice would be encountered in the Bering Sea so far south, a 
The first exploitation of the field (so far as the writer is aware) was undertaken in 1889 
by a corporation under the name of the Alaska Mining and Development Company. Two 
drifts were run, one about 200 feet, the other about 300 feet in length, on a coal seam of 4 
feet average thickness. The coal was brought to the water front by a steam motor on a 
small tramway, and several hundred tons were taken out in 1890, of which the U. S. S. 
Albatross used between 200 and 300 tons. The results of this test b will be mentioned later. 
After diiving the drifts the above distances the seam was lost, presumably by a fault, 
and as all attempts to recover it proved unavailing the work was abandoned. Subse- 
quently the ground was staked by Mr. C. A. Johnson, who drove a tunnel 50 feet. Since 
then prospecting has been carried on by the Alaska Transportation and Coal Company. 
Acknowledgments are due Mr. Geo. Jamme for assistance rendered the writer before his 
visit to the lieid. 
GEOLOGY. 
Four distinct sedimentary horizons have been recognized in the area examined, viz, 
Oligocene, Upper Cretaceous, Lower Cretaceous, and upper .Jurassic. Igneous rocks were 
observed on the eastern side of the peninsula overlying sediments, but their structural rela- 
tions are not known. 
The stratigraphic column of sediments, so far as determined, is as follows: 
Sedimentary rocks of Herendeen Bay coalfield. 
Age. 
Lithology. 
Kenai (not observed by writer) 
Shales (plant remains), possibly coal-bearing. 
Relations unknown. 
Upper Cretaceous 
Conglomerates, sandstones and shales (plant and 
invertebrate remains), coal-bearing. 
Sandstones (invertebrate remains). 
Unconformity (indicated by faulting. 
Lower Cretaceous 
Probably conformity. 
Upper Jurassic 
a The general southern limit of the ice is from Bristol Bay to the vicinity of St. George Island and 
thence about west-northwest to the Siberian coast. See Jarvis, Capt. D. II., U. S. Revenue-Cutter 
Service, Bull. U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey No. 40. 
b Dall, W. H., Report on coal and lignite of Alaska: Seventeenth Ann. Kept. U. S. Geol. Survey, 
pt. 1, 1896, p. 805. 
