28 ALASKAN MINERAL RESOURCES IN 1906. 
employed in these operations. It seems probable that in 1907 the 
number of productive mines will be very much increased. 
The two copper belts on the north and south sides of the Wrangell 
Mountains continue to be a held of much prospecting. Develop- 
ments have been confined chiefly to the more accessible southern 
belt, which it is expected will be connected by railway with tide 
water in the next two years. This mineral belt has been carefully 
traced by prospectors and probably most of it has been preempted 
by this time. On most of these claims, however, assessment work 
alone has been done. There has been systematic development on 
a number of larger holdings, notably on the Hubbard-Elliot prop- 
erty near the west end of the range, and on the Bonanza near the 
east end. It is claimed that a depth of 200 feet has been reached on 
the Bonanza. 
In the upper copper belt, stretching more or less brokenly from 
White River to the head of Tanana and Copper rivers, a score or 
more prospectors have been at work and several new discoveries are 
reported. Some of them are so close to the international boundary 
that until an accurate delineation of that line is made it will be 
uncertain on which side of it they lie. It is reported that native 
copper-bearing lodes have been found on Kletsan Creek and on Camp 
Creek. The other copper deposits of this region are chiefly sulphides. 
The most important fact in regard to the development of these 
copper districts is the assurance of a railway from the coast. Although 
the location of the coastal terminal, if current reports are to be cred- 
ited, is not yet definitely settled, it probably will be either Cordova 
Bay or Katalla, from which a railway will be extended up Copper 
River. Meanwhile steps have been taken to establish means of com- 
munication by small steamers which will run between the rapids of 
Copper River and will be provisionally connected by tramways. 
YORK TIN REGION. 
No member of the Geological Survey visited the tin district during 
1906. Current reports indicate considerable progress in lode mining 
at Cape Mountain and prospecting at Lost River and at Brooks and 
Ear mountains. The Buck Creek tin placers also received atten- 
tion, and some shipments of stream tin were made. 
The margin of the granite mass of Cape Mountain, which appears 
to be the locus of the tin-bearing lodes, has been traced and entirely 
covered by locations, and considerable prospecting has also been 
done. During the last year cassiterite-bearing veins were found on 
the northwest side of the mountain, in the basin of Village Creek. 
The prospects are reported to be encouraging and at least are known 
to have the same general character as the better developed deposits 
on the southeast side of the mountain. By far the most extensive 
