152 ALASKAN MINERAL RESOURCES IN 1904. [bull. 25s| 
Acknowledgments are due S. T. Penberthy, of Homer; E. G 
Wharf, of Seldovia; James Casey, of Cold Bay; G. M. Landsburj 
and J. L. W r etherbee, of Chignik; and Captain Morris, of the steame 
Dora, for courtesies and assistance. 
GEOLOGY. 
The backbone of Kenai Peninsula consists of sedimentary rocks 
and the backbone of Alaska Peninsula of crystalline and metamorphi 
rocks with a considerable quantity of volcanics. At frequent inter 
\ a Is along the coast there are more or less extensive areas of partiall 
or wholly consolidated sedimentary rocks, which range from Triassi 
to Tertiary in age. A formation composed of sandstone, fine con 
glomerate, shale, and clay, with interstratilied coal seams, is found oi 
the east side and at the head of Cook Inlet, on Kodiak Island, and at 
number of points on Alaska Peninsula. The coal-bearing series i 
Kachemak Bay, Port Graham, Tj^onok, Kodiak, and Unga are a] 
thought to belong in the Kenai formation, which is Oligocene; whil 
the Matanuska coal beds hav r e been tentatively referred to the Lowe 
Cretaceous. It is a question whether the coals at Chignik and Heren- 
deen bays are Tertiary or Cretaceous. There are possibly two coal- 
bearing formations in this district. 
The coal of southwestern Alaska is mostly lignite. Some of it, how- 
ever, may grade as bituminous, while some is brown coal. 
DEVELOPMENT. 
Probably the earliest exploitation of coal in southwestern Alaska 
was that of the Russians at Port Graham. In April, 1855, the bark 
Oyane, Captain Kinzie, took miners and machinery from San Fran- 
cisco to this bay. Mining operations continued about ten years and 
supplied Russian steamers with coal. A company organized in 1889 
to mine and ship coal from Herendeen Bay failed to develop a success- 
ful mine. Several companies have since tried the same thing in this 
held, but without success. At Unga mining in a small way to supplj 
local needs has been done at intervals for twenty years. The Alaska 
Packers' Association opened a mine at Chignik in 1893 and has 
operated it continuously to the present time. 
Coal was mined in Kachemak Bay for the first time in 1891, when 
Lieut. R. P. Schwerin, U. S. Navy, took 200 tons from McNeil Can- 
yon. Two San Francisco companies began operations in this coal field 
about 1894, and for three years continued mining in McNeil and East- 
land canyons. In the fall of 1899 the Cook Inlet Coal Fields Com- 
pany undertook to mine coal in the bluffs on the west side of Homer 
spit, Kachemak Bay. During the two years following more develop- 
ment work was done here than has yet been attempted in any other 
Alaska coal field. Three tunnels and two shafts were driven, a rail 
