brooks.] PLACER MINING IN ALASKA IN 1904. 4 2f) 
exceeded $10,000 or $15,000. The producing claims are reported to 
have averaged $10 a day to the man. The last season was a very wet 
one, and operations are said to have been hampered by high water in 
the creeks. 
YUKON DISTRICT. 
Prospectors who maintained their faith in the Tanana- Yukon district 
during the waves of popular excitement which carried most of the 
mining population first into the Klondike and then to Nome, bid fair 
to have some of their hopes realized. A broad belt of metamorphosed 
rocks stretches westward from the international boundary near Dawson 
to the Yukon at the Ramparts, and in this belt are many localities 
which are known to be gold bearing. The general features of the 
occurrence of gold placers in the various camps of this field are similar, 
though the local variations are sufficient to bring about differences in 
mining values. Thus in the Klondike the high-bench gravels or 
" white channel," as the}'' are called locally, have proved large pro- 
ducers. The high gravels in the Chicken Creek basin of Fortymile 
have also yielded considerable gold, but those of the Rampart region, 
up to the present time, have not been found to carry mining values 
under the present conditions. Fortymile probably has advantage over 
the Klondike in the water supply, but its placers have thus far proved 
not nearly so rich. The placers at Fairbanks are far more accessible 
than those of Fortymile, but are probably at a disadvantage in regard 
to stream gradients and water supply. At all events, sufficient work 
has been done in this belt, over an area of probably 20,000 square miles, 
to show a wide distribution of placer gold. The events of the last two 
years show that the limit of discovery of rich placers may not by any 
means have been reached, while the low-grade gravels remain prac- 
tically neglected. 
RAMPART REGION. 
The most westerly camps of this belt lie in the so-called Rampart 
region, and are described in detail by Mr. Prindle on pages 104 to 119 of 
this bulletin. The most encouraging features, according to Mr. 
Prindle's statement, are the successful operation of some small 
hydraulic plants, which has stimulated other similar enterprises, and 
further discoveries of good pay in the valleys of the the best known 
creeks. He calls attention to the extensive deposits of high-bench 
gravels in this field, but so far prospecting has not shown them to con- 
tain workable placers. 
FAIRBANKS DISTRICT. 
One hundred miles to the east of the Rampart region is the new Fair- 
banks district, whose increase of output from $40,000 in 1903 to prob- 
ably $400,000 in 1904 has made it the immediate focal point of interest 
