offit] GOLD PLACERS OF TURNAGAIN ARM. 93 
ow and steep, but the larger ones frequently show by their U-shaped 
toss section the former presence of glaciers. In fact, glaciers may 
>e still seen at a number of places. Chief among them are Portage 
jlacier, occupying the pass between the head of Turnagain Arm and 
3 ortage Bay, and the two neighboring glaciers on Glacier River and 
?wentymile Creek. Besides these there are several smaller ones on 
ributaries of Glacier Creek. 
The towns of Hope and Sunrise are the distributing points from 
rhich supplies of all kinds are carried to the creeks of the Turnagain 
Lrm field. A small steamer, the Tyonic, connects with the larger 
>cean-going vessels at Seldovia, on the southern end of Kenai Penin- 
ula, bringing mail and freight to the towns in the Cook Inlet region. 
?his steamer makes no trips during the winter, for the ice prevents 
tavigation in the upper part of the inlet during about five months in 
he year. It is customary to carry in supplies for the camps over the 
now in winter, when traveling is far less difficult than in summer. 
?he country is heavily timbered up to an altitude of 1,500 or 2,000 
eet. This timber is chiefly spruce, but comprises a minor amount of 
lemlock, cotton wood, and birch. Spruce and hemlock reach a diam- 
iter of 20 inches or more and furnish some lumber for the purposes 
>f the miner. One or two sawmills have been constructed to supply 
his demand. 
The line of the Alaska Central Railroad, now in course of construc- 
ion, runs northward from Resurrection Bay, by way of Salmon 
>eek, Snow River, Trail Creek, and Glacier River, to the eastern 
nd of Turnagain Arm, then westward along the north shore to Knik 
krm. It will not, therefore, reach the mining camps adjacent to 
lope and Sunrise, but will furnish a much easier method of landing 
upplies on Glacier Creek than is now possible. 
GEOLOGY. 
The eastern portion of Kenai Peninsula and the region about the 
lead of Turnagain Arm present a succession of rocks, which as a 
yhole are of remarkably uniform appearance and composition. The} r 
,re of sedimentary origin and consist chiefly of fine-grained gray and 
)luish-black slates and gray arkoses. Lnterstratified with these, but in 
ar less amount, are quartzose beds and occasional thin conglomerates, 
n a few places north of Turnagain Arm this series of rocks, called by 
^endenhall" the Sunrise series, is cut by dikes of igneous rock of an 
/plitic or granitic character. These igneous rocks were not found in 
he region immediately south of the arm, and while the bowlders of 
granitic material seen in the gravels might suggest the presence of 
gneous intrusions, it is believed that if intrusive rocks occur here at 
a Mendenhall, W. C, A reconnaissance from Resurrection Bay to the Tanana River, Alaska, in 
198: Twentieth Ann. Rept, U. S. Geol. Survey, pt. 7, 1898, p. 305. 
