1(54 ALASKAN MINERAL RESOURCES IN 1904. [bull. 259. 
CIIIGN'IK KIVEK. 
The coal mine on Chignik River, which was hastity examined, is on 
the west bank, well up toward the mouth of the first lake, and about 
two hours distant, by steamer, from the Alaska Packers 1 Association 
cannery. The channels of the lagoon and river are so shallow that a 
boat drawing over 2 feet of water can not make the passage on less 
than half tide. The seam outcrops directly on the river bluff, comes 
to the surface of the ground in a ravine above the bluff, and has been 
traced inland more than half a mile. It was discovered in 1885," but 
it was not until 1893 that the company began to develop the mine. 
The bed dips northeast at an angle of 20° and strikes N. 5° W. Two 
6-foot tunnels have been driven on the seam, about 40 feet apart. 
The upper tunnel is about 250 feet long and has been widened to a 
width of 40 feet in the clear in some places, Avith a single crosscut to 
the lower tunnel. It is now abandoned, and work is being done only 
in the lower tunnel, which runs in nearly straight for 500 feet. At 
the face the tunnel strikes a roll in the floor which cuts out the greater 
part of the seam. Rooms have been opened on the upper side of the 
tunnel up to the roll, which runs diagonal to the direction of the 
tunnek so that in the first room, which is about 150 feet from the 
entrance, the roll is 75 }^ards from the drift. The coal is carried 
from the breast of the rooms to the tunnel in chutes and taken out in 
tram cars, from which it is dumped directly on the barge. 
A section of the seam measured in the tunnel is as follows: 
Section of Chignik River coal seam. 
Ft. in. 
Dry bone, with thin coal streaks 3 to 9 
Coal 6 
Coal and dirt 8 
Coal 1 
Bony coal (gob) 1 5 
Coal 1 4 
Total _■ 5 2 
The roof of the seam, which is shale with thin streaks of coal, is 
very even and is overlain by sandstone. The floor, however, is not so 
regular, and a roll or swelling in it reduces the thickness of the seam 
at the end of the tunnel from 5 feet to 9 inches. It is possible that the 
roll, which is known to be rather long, may be narrow, and that a 
short tunnel driven through it would discover the full thickness of the 
seam on the other side. An analysis of this coal is given on page 170. 
The coal is solid and bright, and comes out in good-sized chunks. 
When used under a boiler it has to be stoked very frequently to keep 
it burning fast, and the engineer at the cannery reported to Dall that 
«Dall, W. H., Coal and lignite of Alaska: Seventeenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, pt. 1, p. 802. 
