152 ALASKAN MINERAL RESOURCES IN 1905. 
faulting and crushing have produced almost as great an effect, and these factors introduce 
a serious element of doubt in tin mining, for, as will be shown later, the tin veins are affeeted 
by the faults. 
TIN DEPOSITS. 
Float cassiterite has been found quite extensively near Cape Mountain. It is reported 
from the vicinity of Cape Prince of Wales, and a fine piece weighing several pounds is said 
to have come from a point about 12 miles east of the cape. Little has been seen on the 
south side of Cape Mountain, and by far the largest amount has been found on the north 
and northeast sides, where masses of nearly pure cassiterite weighing from 20 to 30 pounds 
have been picked up. The float indicates three distinct sets of veins — veins of cassiterite 
with tourmaline and quartz, tin-bearing quartz veins, and veins of almost pure cassiterite. 
The latter apparently cut the limestone, bu! had not yet been found in place at the time of 
the writer's visit. Fragments of the firsl mentioned are much the most plentiful and are 
distributed over the largest area: the other two, so far as known, have each been found in 
but one locality. 
One noteworthy feature is the distinctive character of the ore from different parts of the 
area. As soon as a hi tie familiarity with the different claims is acquired it is easy to tell 
the particular locality from which specimens have come by their color, crystallization, etc. 
The plant of the Bart ells Tin Mining Company includes an assay office, storerooms, engine 
and living rooms under one roof at Tin ( 'it v. A gasoline engine furnishes power for electric 
drills used in mining, to which the current is carried about a mile across the mountain by 
bare copper wires. The electric drill seems peculiarly well adapted for work in this region. 
It is mobile, although a t rack is required for moving the motor accompanying each drill, and 
in such prospecting work as has been carried on here it has been a great advantage to have 
a central plant at headquarters near the shore. Another advantage is that the cold of the 
tunnels does no: affeci it , while air pipes would probably soon become clogged with ice, and 
steam could not be considered. A 3-stamp Merralls mill with Wilfley tables was being; 
erected at the time of the writer's visit, and a well to obtain water for winter working was 
being sunk near by. The finding of water in this frozen ground is problematical, though not 
totally hopeless, there being strange differences in the depth of the frost at different places 
At Eagle water is obtained below 50 to 00 feel of frozen ground ; at Rampart a hole 225 feet 
deep had not reached the depth of the frost . at Nome in places there is no permanent frost 
in the ground, while at other places it goes down over 100 feet : but the country around Cape 
Prince of Wales is colder than at Nome, with a noticeably shorter summer season, so that it 
seems probable that the frost will be deeper. 
Prospect tunnels and shafts have been dug at numerous places and a large amount of 
work has been done upon them. At the time of Collier's visit in 1!H)I some small tin-bear- 
ing veins had been struck m a prospect tunnel known as the "Lucky Queen, "a about l£ 
miles north of Tin City. This tunnel was unused and largely filled with ice in 1905, and the 
principal operations of the company had been transferred to the North Star claim, lying a 
short distance east and at a somewhat lower altitude. These two tunnels are located well 
toward the east end of a granite mass that seems to be a large dike, though time did not 
admit of tracing out its relations, and it may be a portion of the main mass of granite over 
which enough limestone still lies to cover its larger proportions. Another prospect tunnel 
that is said to cut through a small thickness of limestone before striking the granite has 
been started 1,50 or 200 feet below the North Star tunnel. 
By far the largest and most promising prospects so lar found are in the North Star, 
which was driven into the granite a little over 200 feet in a general direction of about S. 70° 
W. Older parts of the workings are hard to examine owing to their being covered with a 
beautiful coating of frost from one-half to 1 inch in thickness. The frost is said to form 
noticeably only during the summer, when the air from the outside brings in moisture which 
a Collier, A. J., Recent development of Alaskan tin deposits: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 259, L90fl 
pp. 124-125. 
