eatttfiR.]       TIN    DEPOSITS    OF    THE    YORK    REGION,    ALASKA.  165 
result  of  this  work  several  tons  of  ore  were  shipped  out  to  the  States. 
During  the  summer  of  1903  several  companies  were  exploiting  claims 
on  the  creek.  The  methods  of  mining  and  sluicing  stream  tin  were 
all  modifications  of  somewhat  primitive  methods  of  gold-placer  mining. 
It  is  reported  that  considerable  ore  was  obtained  and  hauled  to  York 
for  shipment.  Should  the  tin  prove  to  be  in  sufficient  quantity  on  this 
creek  or  in  any  of  the  creeks  in  its  vicinity,  more  economical  methods  of 
mining  must  be  adopted.  In  other  parts  of  Seward  Peninsula  hydraulic 
mining  has  been  practiced  with  marked  success  in  the  gold  placers,  and 
could  probably  be  adapted  to  the  tin  placers  as  well.  Water  for  this 
purpose  can  be  obtained  from  the  streams  rising  in  the  York  Mountains, 
and  can  probably  be  brought  in  mining  ditches  to  the  tin  placers  of 
Buck  Creek  and  vicinity,  though  this  will  be  somewhat  expensive. 
ANIKOVIK    RIVER   AND   BUHNER   CREEK. 
The  first  discoveries  of  tin  ore  in  the  York  region  were  made  on 
Anikovik  River  and  Buhner  Creek,  a  tributary  of  this  river,  by  Mr. 
Alfred  H.  Brooks,  by  whom  they  were  first  described. a 
Anikovik  River  enters  Bering  Sea  at  the  town  of  York,  and  has  a 
length  of  about  15  miles.  It  flows  in  a  comparatively  broad  valley  cut 
in  the  York  Plateau.  In  the  lower  part  of  the  Anikovik  Valley  there  are 
rather  extensive  gravel  deposits.  The  bed  rock  consists  for  the  most 
part  of  slates,  which  break  up  into  pencil-shaped  fragments,  as  has 
been  described. 
Buhner  Creek  is  a  small  tributary  of  Anikovik  River,  from  the 
west,  about  3  miles  from  the  coast.  This  creek  has  a  length  of  about 
a  mile,  and  flows  in  a  short  V-shaped  gulch  cut  in  the  slates.  On  this 
creek  the  stream  tin  was  found  concentrated  on  the  bed  rock  with 
other  heav}T  minerals.  A  sample  of  the  concentrates  from  the  sluice 
boxes  yielded  the  following  minerals:  Cassiterite,  magnetite,  ilmenite, 
limonite,  pyrite,  fluorite,  garnet,  and  gold.  The  determination  by 
per  cent  of  weight  was  as  follows:  90  per  cent  of  tin  stone,  5  per  cent 
magnetite,  other  minerals  5  per  cent. 
On  Anikovik  River,  about  one-half  mile  below  the  mouth  of  Buhner 
Creek,  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Brooks's  visit  to  the  region,  sluicing  for 
gold  was  in  progress  and  specimens  of  cassiterite  were  obtained  from 
the  sluice  boxes.  One  pebble  of  stream  tin  obtained  from  this  locality 
was  about  2  inches  in  diameter.  Mr.  Brooks  was  of  the  opinion  that 
the  source  of  the  tin  stone  would  be  found  in  the  quartz  and  calcite 
veins  which  carried  the  gold,  though  no  cassiterite  was  found  in  any  of 
this  vein  material. 
Since  1901  these  workings  have  been  abandoned  by  miners,  neither 
gold  nor  cassiterite  having  been  found  in  paying  quantities. 
a  Brooks,  Alfred  H.,  A  reconnaissance  of  the  Cape  Nome  and  adjacent  gold   fields  of  Seward 
Peninsula,  Alaska,  in  1900  (a  special  publication  of  the  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey),  1901,  pp.  132-138. 
