64 ALASKAN MINERAL RESOURCES IN 1906. 
SKAGWAY MINING DISTRICT. 
GENERAL STATEMENT. 
There are no gold-quartz mines in the Skagway district. The only 
gold produced has been from the placer mines on Porcupine and Nug- 
get creeks in the Chilkat drainage basin and from the beach diggings 
at Lituya Bay. These placer mines were mostly idle in 1906, and the 
production for the year was nil. 
At Porcupine Creek nothing has been attempted since the washout 
in July, 190."). At Nugget Greek small improvements were made on 
some bench claims just above Salmon River, but no work was done 
on the deposits of this river. 
LITUYA BAY. 
Lituya Bay forms a deep indentation in the coast line 50 miles to 
the northwest of Cross Sound. Although it is an excellent harbor, a 
bar composed of large bowlders and gravel wash almost locks the 
entrance, and through the boat channel, which is but a hundred feet 
in width, the tide rushes at great velocity, so thai it is dangerous h 
enter except at slack water during calm weather. 
The lowlands flanking the abrupt mountain slopes at the head oi 
the hay are composed of Pliocene conglomerate and shale beds carry- 
ing narrow seams of coal, the latter of no commercial importance. 
These strata overlie a belt o\' slates and greenstones, which in turn 
overlie the metamorphic schists exposed along the precipitous shore 
at tin 1 head o\' the hay. The mountain range in the background i^ 
composed essentially of an intrusive granodiorite. Indications oil 
mineralization were observed in these schists bordering tin 4 granite 
belt . and from them the placer gold occurring in the beach sands alonl 
the coast is supposed to have originated. 
The auriferous beach sands are distributed along the Pacific shon 
t<» the northwest of the hay for a distance of about 10 miles, and simi- 
lar occurrences are reported at Yakutat. These auriferous deposit; 
consist o( black and ruby sands, occurring in layers from a few Lncha 
to a few feet thick and extending in places for 100 yards back fron 
tide water. The black or magnetite sands are by far the richest , an] 
a pan test gave numerous tine colors ranging from a fraction of a cen 
to several cents in value. 
At a point 1 miles northwest of Lituya Bay a river which flow- 
nearly parallel with the shore for about 3 miles enters the ocean. an< 
here the fine wash which is derived from the mountain streams an< 
carried in suspension is deposited by the counter action i)f the sur 
against the stream current. During periods of high tide and storm 
these auriferous sands are concentrated by the waves in layers hig] 
up on the beach. Since L890 these deposits have been worked a 
