BERING RIVER COAL FIELD. 
By George C. Martin. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The Bering River coal field is situated from 12 to 25 miles inland 
from Controller Bay, on the northern tributaries of Bering River and 
about 35 miles east of Copper River. This field has attracted consid- 
erable attention in recent years because of the very high quality of 
the coal and the great number and thickness of the seams. The 
region was hastily studied by the author during the summers of 1903 
and 1901. The results of earlier work have already been published in 
abstract," while a more complete discussion b together with maps is in 
press. The latter, although based primarily upon the field work of 
1903, has been revised in proof since the close of the field season of 
1901. The following pages are hence in part a duplication of the 
chapter on coal in Bulletin 250. The writer has attempted to present 
the purely economic facts more clearly in the following pages than 
was possible with the limited amount of revision allowed in the other 
publication. Facts other than economic will be found more fully 
presented in Bulletin 250. 
Since the passage of the law providing for the survey and sale of 
coal lands in Alaska there has been renewed activity in the develop- 
ment of this field. The construction of many miles of trails and of 
upward of a hundred new prospect openings made it possible for the 
writer, during a brief visit to the field in the autumn of 1904, to gather 
many new facts concerning the geology and coal deposits of the region. 
The result not only confirms the earlier favorable opinion of the field, 
but proves that the amount of coal is far greater than was hitherto 
suspected. 
GEOLOGY. 
The coal area now known is situated entirely within the valley of 
Bering River and on the northern tributaries of that stream (fig. 8). 
The southern or coastward boundary of the coal area coincides with the 
position of Bering River and Bering Lake. The western boundary 
probably lies along a north-south line extending through the northern 
a Petroleum fields of Alaska and the Bering River coal field: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 225, 1904, 
pp. 365-382. 
bThe petroleum fields of the Pacific coast of Alaska, with a description of the Bering River coal 
deposits: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 250, 1905. 
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