COAL FIELDS OF THE CAPE LISBURNE REGION. 
By Arthur J. Collier. 
INTRODUCTION. 
Cape Lisburne is a bold headland which marks the northwestern 
extremity of a great land mass which projects into the Arctic Ocean 
from the western coast of Alaska between latitudes 68° and 69°. It 
is 160 miles north of the Arctic Circle and 300 miles in a direct line 
from Nome, and is the only point north of Bering Straits where hills 
above 1,000 feet in height approach the sea. This peninsula can be 
conveniently termed the Cape Lisburne region. In outline it roughly 
resembles a hand, of which Cape Lisburne forms the knuckle and 
Point Hope, about 40 miles southwest of Cape Lisburne, the index 
finger, pointing west. The Point Hope Peninsula is a triangular 
area about 11 miles wide at its base, next the main land, that extends 
16 miles out to sea. It consists of two low sanclspits which con- 
verge and meet near the point, the space between being occupied 
in part by a lagoon called Marryat Inlet and in part by the delta of 
the Kukpuk River. It is therefore a typical cuspate foreland. East 
of the Point Hope foreland there is a range of hills called the Lis- 
burne Mountains, which extend from ("ape Lisburne southward to 
Cape Thompson, and at their highest point probably attain an eleva- 
tion of 2,500 feet. 
East of the Lisburne Range there is a region of rolling hills and 
ridges, usually below 800 feet in elevation, which extends eastward 
for an undetermined distance. The trend of the ridges and many of 
the valle} r s is dependent on the bed-rock structures. 
The drainage of the region is effected mainly by one large river, 
called the Kukpuk, whose basin occupies most of the interior portion. 
It rises about 60 miles southeast of Cape Lisburne and discharges into 
Marryat Inlet. Thetis Creek and Pitmegea River are two smaller 
streams which drain a region lying north of the Kukpuk basin and 
discharge into the Arctic Ocean 33 and 40 miles, respectively, east of 
Cape Lisburne. 
a Abstract of bulletin in preparation. 
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