GOLD MINING ON SEWARD PENINSULA. 139 
The only winter mining was that on Snowball Creek. In connection with the gold depos- 
its of Ophir Creek it may be said that the occurrence of cinnabar in quartz veins on 
Crooked Creek has been known for several years and that gold amalgam is found in the 
gravels there. 
South of Council, on Melsing Creek, a small steam shovel was employed during the 
summer to strip off the overburden from pay gravels about a mile east of Niukluk River. 
The gravels here have a thickness of from 3 to 4 feet and the muck above about the same. 
The gold lies on bed rock, which it penetrates to a depth of 2 feet in some places. Muck 
and gravel were first removed by the scraper to within 6 inches of bed rock, when the 
remaining gravel and as much of the bed rock as was necessary were taken up by hand 
and shoveled into sluice boxes. A small scraper holding two-thirds of a yard was operated 
by four lines, three of which were attached to the scraper and the fourth to a shift block. 
Much annoying delay was caused by the lines, owing in part, doubtless, to the use of 
sheaves of too small diameter and failure to keep the ropes and sheaves free from sand 
Pits of 100 or 110 feet by 50 feet were dug and the gravels dumped at one side out of 
the way, the time required for one round trip varying from two and a half to three minutes. 
Power was furnished by a small steam engine. Wood was used as fuel under the boiler. 
Only \\ cords were required per day, but this cost $13 per cord, since no provision for 
fuel had been made the previous winter, and it had to be hauled in summer when wages 
were higher and freighting more difficult. 
Other operators on Melsing Creek either make use of the horse scraper, as is done near 
the mouth of Basin ('reek, or shovel directly into sluice boxes. 
DANIELS CREEK. 
Daniels Creek continues to be an important producer of gold, and with the water sup- 
ply available since the enlargement of the Topkok ditch should increase its output during 
the coming year. An interesting fact in connection with the melting of Daniels Creek 
gold is its loss in weight due to the volatilization of cinnabar caught in the sluice boxes 
with the gold. The cinnabar occurs in the creek gravels, but is not known in the beach 
sands to the south. 
TELLER REGION. 
The gold output from the region adjacent to Teller comes almost entirely from two 
creeks, Gold Run and Bering Creek. Of these, Gold Run is by far the larger producer, 
the gold being taken from claims located just above the mouth of Alder Creek. Mining 
on Bering Creek was almost entirely restricted to the bench gravels. The gold is coarse, 
bright, and unworn, and it is said that 75 per cent of it is picked up by hand. 
On the Arctic slope, southeast of Shishmaref Inlet, ten men were prospecting on Dick 
Creek, a tributary of Serpentine River. A copper prospect also has been discovered in 
this region. It is located near the head of South Fork of Serpentine River, between 
Quartz and Bismarck creeks. The copper occurs as carbonates, chiefly malachite with 
some azurite, with quartz, at a contact of limestone overlying gray mica-schist. A shaft 
25 feet deep has been sunk above the vein, which dips to the northwest, but it must be 
carried down 20 or 25 feet farther before reaching the ore. An incline 20 feet long was 
also driven in the vein, whose thickness is said to be from 6 to 21 inches, and 10 to 12 
tons of ore were taken out, which will be sledded to Teller this winter (1905-6). 
KOUGAROK RIVER. 
No member of the Geological Survey visited any part of the Kougarok or the Fairhaven 
precinct in 1905. Development work on Kougarok River consisted largely of ditch con- 
struction, but the gold output of the whole region is not small compared with the other 
regions except Nome and Ophir Creek. Aside from Dick Creek, Kougarok River is at pres- 
ent the most difficult placer region of Seward Peninsula to reach, and the exploitation of 
