34 ALASKAN MINERAL RESOURCES IN 1906. 
PACIFIC COAST REGION. 
Mr. Wright treats of the placers of the Juneau, Porcupine, and 
Lituya Bay districts in this report (pp. 51, 55, 56, 64, 65). The most 
noteworthy fact is the small advance made in placer mining in the 
Porcupine field. An abundance of water and steep gradients, with 
considerable bodies of gravel, are the favorable conditions in this 
field, but, on the other hand, the district is handicapped by the 
ruggedness of the topography and the frequent Hoods, which often 
carry away the miners' equipment. The presence of glacial bowl- 
ders over much of this district is unfavorable to dredging operations. 
Although the values average 4 much lower than in the Yukon and 
Seward placers, yet they are within the limits of profitable mining, 
provided the other difficulties can be overcome. 
The beach placers at various places along the seaboard between 
Lituya Bay and Unga Island yield only a small annual production, 
but probably give employment every year to half a hundred men. 
These deposits are of such a character that they can not be mined 
on any but a small scale. All attempts so far made to exploit them 
with machinery have met with failure. Vaktag Beach, which is 
about 60 miles east of Controller Bay, is estimated to have produced 
about $25,000 in L906. About $10,000 worth of gold has been 
taken from the beaches of Kodiak and the other islands lying to 
the southwest. 
In the Copper River region the- most active placer-mining opera- 
tions were in the Xizina basin, tributary to the Chitina. This dis- 
trict lies about 200 miles by trail from tide water, and the cost of 
operations is necessarily very high. It is reported that five claims 
were operated in the summer of 1906, employing in the aggregate 
30 men. In the Chistochina district no rapid progress is reported, 
but considerable mining was carried on. 
The Cook Inlet placers are described elsewhere (pp. 115-124), and 
it is shown that there has been a decided falling off in output as 
compared with 1905. The one important advancement is the 
exploitation of the placers of the Yentna district. The value of the 
production for 1906 of Cook Inlet and Copper River is estimated to 
have been $400,000. 
SEWARD PENINSULA. 
The Nome district continues to be the mining center of Seward 
Peninsula, with the Council district as second. Of the production of 
$7,500,000 for the entire peninsula, probably 50 per cent must be 
credited to the third-beach placers near Nome. These two impor- 
tant districts, as well as the Kougarok, are described elsewhere in ihis 
report (pp. 126-181). In the lesser districts, such as the Bluestone 
