98 ALASKAN MINERAL RESOURCES IN 1904. [bull. 259. 
COOPER AND STETSON CREEKS. 
Cooper Creek heads in the divide separating the drainage into ; 
Resurrection Bay from that into Cook Jnlet, and joins Kenai River i 
3 miles below Lake Kenai. It and its tributary, Stetson Creek,, 
are the only streams of the Kenai River drainage which have been 
productive up to the present time, although considerable work has 
been done in a number of places. The high gravel benches near the 
mouth of the stream would make good ground for a hydraulic plant 
to handle, but the gold is very unevenly distributed, and the amount soi 
far taken out is small — not over a few thousand dollars — and most on 
it was obtained from the creek bed of a single claim in one season.! 
Very little work was done on either of these creeks during the past 
summer. 
CHARACTER AND ORIGIN OF THE PLACER GOLD. 
The gold from the different creeks varies greatly in appearance and 
value, ranging from less than $15 on Crow Creek to over $17 on Six- 
mile Creek. This difference in value is due to the varying amounts on 
silver and copper associated with the gold. In almost all cases it is 
flattened and heavy, usually smooth, and occasionally striated as if it 
had been rubbed against a rough surface. Any attempt to explain its 
distribution must take into account the action of glacial ice in the 
transportation and rearrangement of the gravels. It is believed that] 
while probably most of the gold is of local origin, a small part, likq 
the gravels associated with it, may possibly have been brought to its 
present place through the agency of moving ice. 
AURIFEROUS LODES. 
It has been said that practically all the gold is obtained from placer 
deposits, but at a number of localities quartz veins are being pros- 
pected, and these are of interest in connection with the question of the 
origin of the gold in the gravels. 
Bear Creek. — -At the head of Bear Creek a small quartz vein carry- 
ing gold values has been partly opened during the last year. The 
chief part of the season was devoted to the erection of a boiler house 
and head frame, but samples of ore taken out while enlarging a small 
shaft show free gold in a quartz gangue containing pyrite, galena, an< 
sphalerite with a little copper stain. 
Sawmill and Slate creeks. — On Sawmill Creek 6 miles east of Sun 
rise, also near by on Slate Creek and the shore of Turnagain Arm 
quartz veins carrying pyrite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, zin( 
blende, and free gold are found in fault planes running about easi 
northeast. The country rock has been disturbed by faulting since th 
ore was deposited, thus cutting off the veins and making it difficult to 
tind their continuations. A picked quantity of ore put through si 
small arrastre on Sawmill Creek yielded a fraction over $26 per ton. i 
