GOLD MINING ON SEWARD PENINSULA. 141 
are the low gradient of the streams and the present lack of water for mining purposes, 
together with the shortness of the mining season and the cost and difficulty of obtaining all 
kinds of supplies. 
( Jhicago Creek coal is coming more and more into use as the cost of mining it diminishes. 
It is expected that the consumption of this coal will be greater during the winter of 1905-6 
than in the preceding one, since new machinery has been installed and greater efforts are 
being made to place it on the local market. As has previously been stated in a bulletin of 
the Surveys this coal is a lignite and occurs in isolated areas at several localities on the 
eastern side of Seward Peninsula. The rocks associated with it outcrop along Kugruk 
River below Chicago Creek and also above it for a number of miles, but have been folded 
extensively, and since they possess the same north-south strike as the schists on either side 
of the river are not apt to attract attention unless one looks for them. In the summer of 
1903 the writer made a hasty trip to Chicago Creek and went up Kugruk River to the 
mouth of Independence Creek. Coal was frequently found on the river bars and was pres- 
ent in sufficient quantity to be used for fuel. It has' not yet been determined in what 
amount the coal is present in this valley, but its character is such that it can never have 
more than a local market. Nevertheless, the two camps on Candle Creek and Inmachuk 
River are fortunate in having such a supply at hand if, as has been said, it can be delivered 
at a cost of $16 per ton. 
DITCHES. 
Ditch construction formed so prominent a feature in the development of the placer dis- 
tricts of Seward Peninsula in 1905 that an account of what has been done merits a separate 
treatment. Small ditches carrying 1 or 2 sluice heads of water have always formed a part 
of the necessary equipment of almost every claim. Such ditches usually take their water 
supply from the creek on which the claims are situated, the water having no greater head 
than is required to deliver it at the upper end of a line of sluice boxes. The ditches now 
being constructed are not of this kind, but are intended rather to deliver large amounts of 
water with the greatest possible head and are frequently of considerable length, such as 
the Miocene ditch, which with its various branches measures more than 50 miles. 
During the summer of 1905 there were either completed or in course of construction on 
Seward Peninsula not less than 13 ditches, each with a capacity greater than 1,200 miner's 
inches, over half of them carrying 2,000 inches or more. While these ditches are all within 
drainage areas tributary to Bering Sea, they are not confined to any one locality, but are 
distributed among the various mining regions of the south and central parts of the penin- 
sula. Several large ditches have been built in former years, but in this account attention 
will be given chiefly to ditches in course of construction during the summer of 1905. 
The Seward ditch takes its water from Nome River 800 feet below the mouth of Dorothy 
Creek, and will deliver it to the tundra claims south of Newton and Anvil creeks. Its total 
length will be 37 miles, of which about 30 are now completed. For the first 3^ miles below 
the intake it measures 14 feet on the bottom, 22 feet on the top, and has a 5-foot bank. All 
rockwork i of the same width. With a depth of 3 feet this ditch will carry 4,100 inches 
of water. The remaining excavation is but 10 feet across the bottom, the intention being 
to widen it later. This is said to be the general practice in ditch construction on Seward 
Peninsula; they are not originally dug of full width, but widen through the thawing and 
sloughing in of the sides. At two localities piping was required — an inverted siphon of 
40-inch pipe 820 feet long over Hobson Creek, and an inverted siphon 615 feet long over 
Clara Creek. The ditch has a grade of 3.17 to 3.18 feet per mile and delivers water at its 
lower end at an elevation of about 400 feet above sea level. 
The Pioneer Company is constructing a ditch to carry water from Nome River to the 
south side of Anvil Mountain. This ditch is about 60 feet lower than the Seward ditch, 
"MofEt, Fred H. The Fairhaven gold placers, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey 
No. 247, 1905, p. 67. 
