48  CONTRIBUTIONS    TO    ECONOMIC    GEOLOGY,   1903.  [bull.  225. 
character  requiring  heavy  investments  of  capital.     Several  hydraulic 
plants  have  been,  or  are  being,  installed. 
A  large  deposit  of  gold-bearing  gravels  is  reported  at  the  upper  end 
of  Tustumena  Lake,  in  the  central  part  of  Kenai  Peninsula,  the  prom- 
ontory which  separates  Cook  Inlet  from  the  Pacific.  These  placers, 
which  are  from  20  to  30  miles  inland,  are  said  to  be  of  sufficiently  high 
grade  to  be  workable  by  hydraulic  methods,  and  a  plant  was  installed 
during  the  past  summer. 
KUSKOKWIM  AND   MOUNT  McKINLEY  REGION. 
The  large  area  which  is  blocked  out  by  Cook  Inlet  on  the  east,  the 
Tanana  and  Yukon  on  the  north  and  west,  and  Bering  Sea  on  the  south, 
and  which  is  drained  chiefly  by  Kuskokwim  River,  has  been  but  little 
explored.  It  has  been  traversed  by  a  few  of  the  parties  of  the  Geolog- 
ical Survey/1  but  much  of  it  is  practically  unknown.  Spurr  reported 
evidence  of  mineralization  in  the  Tordrillo  Mountains  and  colors  of  gold 
in  streams  which  head  in  these  mountains.  Prospectors,  too,  have 
entered  this  region,  and  now  and  again  come  reports  of  the  discovery  of 
rich  placers,  but  up  to  the  present  time  these  have  not  been  verified. 
Gold  has  long  been  known  to  occur  on  the  upper  waters  of  Mulchatna 
River,  and  the  easterly  fork  of  Nushagak  River,  emptying  into  Bristol 
Bay,  but  has  not  yet  been  found  in  workable  quantities.  These  placers 
are  said  to  yield  $4  to  $5  a  day  to  the  man,  but  their  inaccessibility  makes 
them  of  no  commercial  value.  In  1900  the  news  of  the  discovery  of 
gold  near  the  lower  Kuskokwim  caused  a  small  stampede  from  Nome. 
The  scene  of  the  find,  which  proved  to  be  of  no  importance,  was  on  one 
of  the  small  streams  which  flow  into  Kuskokwim  Bay  from  the  east. 
The  latest  reports  of  placers  in  this  field  locate  them  in  the  vicinity 
of  Mount  McKinley.  Several  parties  of  prospectors  ascended  Kan- 
tishna  River,  a  southwestern  tributary  of  the  Tanana  about  100 
miles  from  the  Yukon.  These  men  report  the  presence  of  auriferous 
placers  in  the  Kantishna  Basin,  near  the  foot  of  the  mountains.  The 
writer,  who  traversed  this  region  in  the  summer  of  1902,  is  unable  to 
substantiate  this  report.  Of  the  streams  which  flow  into  the  Kus- 
kokwim from  the  Alaskan  Range  few,  if  any,  even  carried  colors. 
In  some  of  the  streams  of  the  Kantishna  drainage  system,  however, 
some  colors  were  found,  and  there  was  other  evidence  of  mineraliza- 
tion. It  seems  at  least  possible  that  this  field  may  yet  produce  placer 
gold. 
SEWARD    PENINSULA. 
Seward  Peninsula,  from  the  standpoint  of  production  and  of  early 
increase  of  production,  is  still  the  focal  point  of  Alaskan  mining  inter- 
«  Spurr,  J.  E.,  A  reconnaissance  in  southwestern  Alaska:  Twentieth  Ann.  Rept.  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey, 
pt.  7, 1901,  pp.  31-264.    Brooks,  A.  H.,  A  reconnaissance  in  the  Mount  McKinley  region  (in  preparation). 
