;,■:.) 
COAL IN SOUTHWESTERN ALASKA. 
Averages of analyses of Pacific coast and Alaska coals. 
171 
Number 
of 
analyses. 
6 
2 
5 
5 
4 
10 
17 
Locality, 
Kachemak Bay « 
Unga Island & 
Controller Bay *' 
Comox,^ Vancouver Island . . . 
Nanaimo,^ Vancouver Island . 
Washington e 
Coos Bay,/ 9 Oregon 
Moisture 
Vol. 
comb, 
matter. 
Fixed 
carbon. 
Per cent. 
Per oni. 
Per cent. 
L9.85 
40. 48 
30. 99 
10.92 
53.36 
28.25 
2.18 
12.76 
74. 33 
1.25 
i'(i. 87 
58. 74 
2.10 
34. 68 
54. 47 
4. 43 
31.60 
56. 01 
10.22 
44. 19 
38. 91 
Ash. 
Per a ut. 
s. 67 
7.47 
10. 73 
11. 76 
8.09 
7.45 
7.35 
Sulphur. 
I'i r ci ut. 
0. 35 
1.30 
.93 
1.38 
.66 
90 
"W. T. Schaller, above, p. 170. 
&Dall, Coal and lignite of Alaska: Seventeenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, pt. 1, p. 828. 
c Martin, G. C, Bering River coal fields: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 225, p. 374. 
d Annual Report of Minister of Mines, 1902, British Columbia, p." H 2G2. 
e Smith, Coal fields of the Pacific coast: Twenty-second Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, pt. 3, p. 490. 
/Ibid., p. 510. 
&Diller, Geology of northwest Oregon: Seventeenth Ann. Rept., U. S. Geol. Survey, pt. 1, p. 504. 
MARKET. 
The present market for coal in southwestern Alaska is largely at 
Valdez, Seward, Dutch Harbor, and the salmon canneries along Alaska 
Peninsula, on Kodiak Island, and in Bristol Bay. Most of the canneries 
use Wellington (British Columbia) coal brought from the States as 
ballast in their own ships. It costs them about $5 a ton at Seattle 
and $7 at San Francisco. A large market supplying fuel for steamers 
may be developed at Valdez and Dutch Harbor in the future. Passen- 
ger steamers and revenue cutters get Wellington coal at these points 
for $12 a ton. The completion of the Alaska Central Railroad would 
make Seward a large town, with increasing demand for fuel, and, if 
the Matanuska River coal proves abundant and desirable, might make 
Seward a coaling station for ocean vessels. 
In view of the very high grade of the coal which has been found at 
Controller Bay and which may soon be in competition with the Pacific 
coast bituminous coals, it hardly seems possible that any of the south- 
western Alaska lignites have a bright future, unless there should bo 
a local demand for their use in gas engines, for which there is some 
reason to believe they are adapted. The development of an extensive 
copper mining and smelting industry in Prince William Sound, which 
may be looked for at some future date, will afford another market for 
fuel, but the demand will be for a coking coal. It seems possible thai 
the Matanuska coal will meet this requirement. 
