The Cordova daily times., 1919-12-29
NICKEL DEPOSITS OF COPPER RIVER VALLEY ARE DESCRIBED

occupy most of the area under con- sideration. The oldest consists of schist, slate, and limestone, which form the chief rocks of the mountains between Hanagita Valley and Chitina River and of those south of the Han agita Valley eastward from Copper River for nearly thirty miles. These sedimentary beds are folded, faulted and much metamorphosed. Further more, they are intruded in most complicated manner by igneous rocks and sills, which are chiefly dioritic but include granitoid rocks of a more basic kind.
 The second group of sedimentary beds consists of interstratified slate and graywacke, here classed as early Mesozoic CD (Valdez group. It ad- joins the group first mentioned on the south. These sedimentary rocks are folded and faulted but are less metamorphosed than the schist and limestone beds bounding them on the north. They are cut by numerous ligkt-colored dikes of quartz mon- zonite.
 Igneous rocks are common through out this district. Diorite and closely related types are the most common, but more basic intrusive rocks are found in several places. The dioritic rocks doubtless belong to several per iods of intrusion. Some of them are light colored, coarse grained, and al most unaltered; others arc fine grain ed and dark colored. Diorite is es- pecially common in the vicinity of Taral and is in places so greatly al- tered that it can not be readily dis tinguished from the altered diabase associated with it. The greensboro so abundant east of Taral is derived from diorite and diabase. A very few basic dikes having the composition of per idotites were found in this vicinity. The small area between Canyon Creek and Chitina River is in large part complex of intrusives in which large masses of sedimentary rock have been inclosed. Diabase is the pre- vailing type, but diorite is common and presents a varied appearance. dike of peridotite consisting of py- roxene and much-altered olivine with metallic sulphides was found near the head of Canyon Creek. The surround ing rocks are schist and limestone. very much folded and extensively fau1ted.
 The country has been extensively glaciated.
 The Deposits
 Up to the time of the writer's visit in 1917 sixteen nickel claims had been located in the Canyon Creek valley. Some of these claims were staked as early as 1907 and 1908. Moffit, who in 1911 visited the deposits on the west side of the creek, has described tEem briefly, and apparently little de- velopment work has been done onI them since that time. The 16 claims which are consolidated, are held by three or four men. Six of these claims are on the west side of Can yon Creek near it's head, on the east side,4 just over the ridge on the east side, and ? opposite the mouth of Fall Creek on the ridge along the south side of Canyon Creek. The principal development work has been done on the claims west of Canyon Creek. At the time of visit in 1917 no work was being done on any of the claims.
 The country rock of the Canyon Creek valley is schist of probable Carboniferous age. The numerous bodies of igneous hook that have in- truded the schist are conspicuous be- cause of their rusty-looking crop pings. The shapes of these bodies are irregular, but the irregularity is probably due in part to faulting which took place after intrusion. The slick ensided surfaces found along the con- tact between the schist and .gneous rock indicate that such faulting has occurred, and a fault trace shows prominently on the face of cliff on the the west side of Canyon Creek. The intrusive bodies range from acidic rocks, such as quartz mon- zonite, to basic rocks, such as peril dotites. Quartz stringers are also rather abundant in the schist
 Becaused he used gasoline to start A fire with instead of kerosene Russel