THE KOUGAROK REGION. 
By Alfred II. Brooks. 
INTRODUCTION. 
"Kougarok district" is the name " generally given to an auriferous 
gravel region lying in the central part of Seward Peninsula an( 
drained, for the most part, by Kougarok River. This paper \vi 
describe, besides the drainage basin of the Kougarok, the other gok 
bearing streams tributary to Kuzitrin River. Investigations wer 
begun in this field in 1900 by the writer, 6 assisted by A. J. Collie 
soon after the first actual discovery of workable placers, and werei 
extended by Mr. Collier" in the following year. In 1903 the district 
was reexamined by Messrs. Collier and Hess, who prepared a state* 
nient for a report not yet in print/ The writer was again in thk 
field in 1906, spending about ten days in visiting some of the more 
important localities. The notes of Messrs. Collier and Hess have beeB 
freely drawn upon, but for the conclusions here advanced the wri 
is alone responsible. All of the surveys thus far made have be 
preliminary, and the data obtained leave much to be desired, bo 
as to the details of the geology and the distribution of the placer gola< 
TOPOGRAPHY. 
« 
The northwestern front of the Bendeleben Mountains slopes off t(! 
a lowland basin, 20 miles long and 10 miles wide. On the Southwell 
the basin walls gradually approach each other and finally constrict 
the valley to a width of about 3 miles, but 10 miles below it open; 
out again to the low ground encircling the east end of Imuruk Basin 
or Salt Lake, as it is popularly called. The north wall of the lowlaiK 
basin slopes up gently to an upland, whose flat summits stand a 
altitudes of 800 to 1,600 feet. Here broad, flat-topped interstreal 
areas, diversified by some higher domes reaching altitudes of 2,501 
feet, are separated by wide valleys. As elsewhere in the peninsula 
the upland summits mark a former stage of erosion. After the entil 
a The " Kougarok precinct " includes the entire drainage basin of Kuzitrin and Kruzgamcpa rivers. 
i> Brooks, A. II., assisted i>.\ G. I'.. Richardson and A. I. Collier: A reconnaissance of the Cape Nonv 
and adjacent gold fields of Seward Peninsula (in Reconnaissances in the Cape Nome and Norton Ba ; ' 
region, Alaska, in 1900, a special publication of the r. S. Geol. Survey, 1901). 
c Collier, A. J., \ reconnaissance of the northwestern portion of Seward Peninsula : Prof. Paper P. .' 
Geol. Survey No. 2, 1902. 
d Collier, A. J.. Hess, F. I,., and Brooks, A. II., The -old placers of a part of Seward Peninsula (i 
preparation). 
164 
