stone.] COAL IN SOUTHWESTERN ALASKA. 165 
118 pounds of Chignik coal equal LOO pounds of Wellington (B. C.) 
soal. Properly handled it is a fairly satisfactory steaming coal, 
although it makes a large amount of ash, and fires have to be cleaned 
much oftener than with Wellington coal. 
Chignik River mine is worked throughout the year by two men 
without machinery, the coal being undercut by hand and shot down. 
WHALERS CREEK. 
Whalers Creek is a small stream that enters the lagoon from the 
north a short distance below the mouth of Chignik River. Coal is 
fexposed for 600 feet along the northernmost of the three main branches 
3f the creek. 
The strike in this ravine is N. 35° E., and the dip is east at an angle 
of 21°. The section of the coal seam is as follows: 
Section of coal on Whalers Creek. 
Ft. in 
Goal 1 
Clay 1 
Coal . . : 8 
Clay and bone 1 
Coal 1 7 
Bone 0£ 
Coal 1 Oh 
Bone and coal 7 
Total 5 1 
In appearance the coal is a lignite much the same as that mined at 
Chignik River, but the section of the bed is better, the partings being 
Ehin. A short prospect tunnel has been driven on the outcrop, but 
he property is rendered of little value by a series of faults which 
have broken the rocks into blocks. A fault about 500 feet below the 
tunnel and another 115 feet above it cut the coal out entirely. On the 
upstream side, about 40 feet above the tunnel, a vertical fault trend- 
ing N. 45° W. throws the coal down 6 feet. 
Half a mile south of this coal prospect a bed of fossil invertebrates 
was found in the ravine of the middle fork of Whalers Creek. T. W. 
Stanton reports them to be Upper Cretaceous. This locality lies 
between the coal on Whalers Creek and Chignik River, but its relation 
to the coal-bearing formation was not determined. 
THOMPSON CREEK. 
In the valley of Thompson Creek, which enters the head of Chignik 
Bay and is about 7 miles north-northwest from Chignik, there are 
several seams of coal. The only information available concerning the 
region is furnished by Chas. J. Brun, of Chignik, who states that 
there are three seams, of which the top one is 5 feet thick. About 
