THE NOME REGION. 
Bv Fred H. Moffit 
INTRODUCTION. 
The work of the Geological'Survey in the Nome region was initiated 
by Schrader and Brooks during the year following the gold discov- 
eries on Anvil Creek in 1898. Their investigations, although under- 
taken in the late fall and prosecuted under many difficulties, never- 
theless residted in the first statements regarding the high bench 
gravels and the probable presence of oilier gold-bearing beaches back 
of the present beach, whose wealth had then just been revealed. It 
is worthy of note that this prediction a has since been fully justified. 
The investigation thus begun was continued in 1900. A geologic 
reconnaissance was carried on by Brooks, and a topographic recon- 
naissance map, including a large part of the southern half of tin 
peninsula was made by Barnard. Geologic work was again under- 
taken in the region in 1903 by Collier, but formed only a part of his 
studies for that year. The field work of these three seasons was of at 
reconnaissance character and had as its prime object a study of t lie 
occurrence and distribution of the gold. Detailed study of the region 
was made possible when a much more accurate map representing an 
area which includes the beach from Cape Nome to a point 3 miles west 
of the mouth of Snake River, a distance of 15 miles, and extends from 
the coast to the Kigluaik or Sawtooth Mountains, slightly more than 
35 miles, was completed by Gerdine in 1904. (See fig. 5.) Field 
work was begun in the following spring (1905) by Frank L. I less and 
the writer and carried to completion during the summer of 1906 b\ 
Philip S. Smith and the writer. The chief aim in this work was tc 
secure, as far as possible, the facts throwing light on the bed-rock 
source of the gold now found in the gravels and to investigate the 
processes governing the present distribution of that gold. 
It is a fact well known among mining men that by far the greatei 
number of gold placer deposits are largely worked out in a compara- 
tively small number of years, and that lode deposits, though the] 
often yield much smaller values in return for the capital and la bo: 
a Schrader, F. C, and Brooks. A. II., Preliminary report on the Cape Nome gold region, ;) special put 
lication of the r. S. Geol. Survey, 1900, p. 22. 
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