40 ALASKAN MINERAL RESOURCES IN 1904. [bull. 259. 
efficiency of the hot- water method as used in the Klondike is from 5 
to 6 cuhic yards per horsepower generated in the boiler, as against 
3 cubic yards with steam. The method can, however, be applied onl} r 
under certain favorable conditions. 
In the Seward Peninsula the greater rainfall, large r N catchment areas 
at the heads of the long rivers, and the comparative cheapness with 
which ditches can be constructed have led to the investment of much 
capital in long water conduits. For example, a ditch system of 5-i 
miles, built at an expenditure of $300,000 and costing $15,000 annually 
to maintain, supplies 2,000 miner's inches of water at 360 feet head for 
four months in the year. Approximately 200 miles of ditches have 
been built in various parts of the peninsula. Excavations of earth- 
work for ditch building in the peninsula average $1 per cubic yard. 
Hydraulicking without the use of hydraulic lifts is economically 
impossible, except in extremely rare cases. Bench gravels in the 
front of Anvil Mountain, facing the sea, can be hydraulicked if water 
at a sufficient head can be obtained at an expense which is not pro- 
hibitive. The remarkable ancient gravel channel which cuts the 
southern portion of the peninsula from east to west, extending from 
the Fish River along the Casadepaga and Kuzitrin rivers to Port 
Clarence, lies at so low a level that the present streams have not cut 
through it to bed rock. Except where subordinate pa}^ streaks exist 
in it above the present stream, therefore, the physiographic conditions 
will forbid its gravels being hydraulicked, while any other form of 
open cutting is manifestly impossible. It has been little explored, 
and portions of it may be found rich enough to drift. 
Horse scraping, steam or power scraping, derricking, and the appli- 
cation of the mechanical shovel, accompanied in most cases by ground 
sluicing of the frozen muck, should receive consideration from the 
creek operators in the Seward Peninsula, where the deposits are less 
than 15 feet in depth. The low price of winter labor ($2. 50 a day and 
board) should permit of an increasing amount of winter drifting work 
throughout the peninsula. 
It will doubtless eventually be found that the power of water under 
pressure can be more successfully applied to the working of the 
average Seward Peninsula placer by generating electric power and 
applying it to various mechanical devices. While it can not be denied 
that some of the hydraulic elevator installations are handling the 
gravel at a profit, the contrivance is a makeshift, and its use forms no 
part of bona fide hydraulic mining. 
