140 ALASKAN MINERAL RESOURCES TN 1006. 
Rising to the south from the saddle between the Grand Central and 
Windy Creek is a sharp ridge made up of biotite schists striking east 
and west and cut by dikes and sills of intruded coarse granitic rocks. 
Some of the schists are highly graphitic, the graphite appearing as 
abundant small scales on the cleavage surface and much of it not dis- 
tinguishable from the biotite on casual examination. Locally graph- 
ite is segregated in beds of much flattened lenticular masses lying in 
the cleavage of the schist and reaching thicknesses of 6, 8, or even 18 
inches. Thin beds of schist with numerous large garnets are included 
and quartz is nearly everywhere present. When compared with the 
higher grades of graphite the raw product of this locality is seen to 
have a much greater weight, owing to the included quartz. 
As stated, the biotite schists are cut by sills and dikes of pegmatite. 
These also contain graphite, which is associated with them in such a 
way as to suggest that the intrusives and the graphite are closely 
related. Graphite seems to be an original mineral in the pegmatite 
and also occurs in close association with it in the schist. At one 
place about 8 inches of solid graphite was included between a pegma- 
tite sill and the overlying schist. The steep slopes of the mountain 
are strewn with the loose fragments, which, owing to the fact that 
they are much lighter than either the schist or pegmatite, appear 
more abundantly on the surface. One block with dimensions of 
approximately 7 feet, 6 feet, and 30 inches consisted of about equal 
thicknesses of schist and apparently almost pure graphite. 
These graphite-bearing schists extend eastward beyond the ea^t 
fork of Grand Central River and westward across Windy Creek and 
the head of Cobblestone River to the region south of Imuruk Basin, 
where, if the reports of it are true, the graphite is present in greater 
quantity than in the locality just described. 
The quality of this graphite is such as to prohibit its use where the 
better grades are required, although it might be of value for some 
purposes. With the present price of the mineral, however, it is 
doubtful if it can be now handled and placed on the market with profit. 
PLACER DEPOSITS AND MINING. 
To those who year by year have followed the development of 
mining in the region adjacent to Nome it is a noticeable fact that 
during the summer of 1906 the attention of mining men was largely 
given to operating within the area of the Nome tundra. This is a 
condition which may probably continue for some years, until the gold 
of the beaches begins to fail or until all the available ground is opened 
up. If, in addition to the operations on the tundra, those of Glacier 
Creek, Anvil Creek, and Grass Gulch are included, all the most impor- 
tant workings will have been taken into account, although elsewhere 
within the area shown on the Nome and Grand Central maps minor 
