PETROLEUM AT CONTROLLER BAY. 91 
Section north of Bering Lake. 
Feet. 
a. Sandstone 500 
b. Shale with thin flaggy sandstones and with occasional calcareous con- 
cretions 2, 000 
c. Arkose with many coal beds and with some shale and sandstone « 3, 000 
d. Shale and sandstone 1, 000+ 
Section south of Bering Lake. 
Feet. 
e. Conglomerate and conglomeratic sandstones interbedded with shale and 
flaggy sandstones 3, 000 
/. Soft shale with calcareous concretions and with abed of glauconite near 
the base 2, 000 
g. Sandstone 1 , 000 
h. Soft shale 500 
The succession in each of these sections may be assumed as reason- 
ably correct, although there is a possibility that the thicknesses are 
too great because of the repetition of the less characteristic beds by 
faulting. The correlation of the beds of one section with those of the 
other rests at present on evidence which is incomplete and unsatis- 
factory and must be regarded as suggestive rather than proved. It 
is probable that one of two correlations is true. The shale and sand- 
stone (d) may overlie the conglomerates (e) , with a concealed interval 
of unknown extent between them; or a and b may be identical with 
g and h. In the former case the conglomerates underlie the coal field; 
in the latter case the coal underlies all or nearly all of the entire region 
under discussion. The stratigraphic and structural field evidence 
proves nothing either way, but suggests, as the most probable relation, 
that the entire section north of Bering Lake overlies the section south 
of the lake. 
The Quaternary deposits form the surface of practically all the low 
flats of the entire region. They fill all the large valleys to a consider- 
able depth, which in one place is known to exceed 500 feet. 
DEVELOPMENTS. 
Active attempts to produce petroleum in commercial quantities in 
this region have been made for the last five years. The first well was 
begun in the summer of 1901, but no oil was produced and no great 
depth was reached, as the tools were soon lost and the well abandoned. 
The next year the same people drilled another well and obtained some 
oil. Six wells were being drilled in 1903. The following year wit- 
nessed the greatest activity that the region has seen, eight wells being 
in progress. In 1905 and 1906 operations were restricted to two wells. 
The result of these operations has been to obtain one well which 
yields a moderate amount of oil, another well which is capped, but in 
a The Kushtaka formation of earlier reports. 
