martin] CAPE YAKTAG PLACERS. 89 
some of the rocks of the Controller Bay region. They carry Miocene 
fossils. The structure, it is said, is anticlinal, with the axis parallel to 
and very near the shore line. The dip on the southern flank of the 
fold is very steep, the rocks being- practically vertical along the beach. 
The dip on the northern flank is much gentler, seldom exceeding 20°. 
The northward dip continues inland as far as the region has been 
explored. The structure is very uniform, no marked variations from 
the strike and dip recorded above having been noticed. There is said 
to be a belt of crystalline rocks inland at the base of or in the St. 
Elias Range. 
OCCURRENCE OF GOLD. 
The gold is found in the sands of the ocean beach and generally 
occurs in small amounts, richer patches being irregularly distrib- 
uted. The creek gravels are said to be barren except at the mouths of 
the creeks where they have been affected by the ocean waves. Garnet 
sand carries the gold, which is for the most part very fine. Occasional 
25-cent nuggets are found and a very few of the value of several 
dollars have been reported. 
The men can make small wages at all times, if not too crowded, 
while after each heavy storm rich sands are always found. The old 
ground can be worked over anew after each storm, but whether this 
is due to new concentration by the ocean waves or to the exposure of 
anworked material is not known. The deposits can be worked all 
winter; in fact, more gold is found after the severe winter storms 
han during the summer when storms are less frequent and less severe. 
The gold has been obtained by rockers, sea water being largely used. 
Attempts to work the gravels underlying the tundra on the edge of 
Ipering Glacier are said to have been unsuccessful. 
The gold was probably concentrated by wave action from the 
nominal material brought to the coast by the Bering Glacier. 
Unaltered Miocene rocks on the coast are not known to be auriferous 
n this or other districts, hence the original source of the gold is 
loubtless in the metamorphic or other crystalline rocks of the St. 
lias Range. 
Some beach sands from Yakutat Bay have been studied by Mr. J. 
[Stanley -Brown, a who found the sand to be "made up of grains of 
fold, magnetite, garnet, hornblende, pyroxene, zircon, quartz, feld- 
spar, calcite, and mica, associated with fragments of a shaly, slaty, 
Lnd schistose character." He concludes that the sand was doubtless 
lerived from the destruction of metamorphic rocks. 
It does not seem likely that the region will ever become of great 
importance, for the gold is very finely disseminated in all glacial 
leposits, and the zone of wave concentration is small. 
« Nat. Geog. Mag., vol. 3, 1891, pp. 196-198. 
