Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 69.djvu/492

488 saw the new island in September, 1883, and reported that great volumes of steam and smoke, accompanied by showers of ashes, were thrown out from the summit and through fissures • in the sides and base, the bright reflections from the heated interior being visible at night. At the time of this eruption a severe earthquake was felt in the sea off Cape Mendocino, apparently in the line of the PortoláTomales rift of April, 1906.

The islands were visited in 1884 by the officers of the U. S. Revenue Cutter Corwin. and Lieutenant J. C. Cantwell and Surgeon H. W. Yemans made the ascent of New Bogoslof. Lieutenant Cantwell thus describes his experience in the 'Cruise of the Corwin':

The sides of New Bogoslof rise with a gentle slope to the crater. The ascent at first appears easy, but a thin layer of ashes, formed into a crust by the action of rain and moisture, is not strong enough to sustain a man's weight. At every step my feet crushed through the outer covering and I sank at first ankle-deep and later on knee-deep into a soft, almost impalpable dust which arose in clouds and nearly suffocated me. As the summit was reached the heat of the ashes became unbearable, and I was forced to continue the ascent by picking my way over rocks whose surfaces, being exposed to the air, were somewhat cooled and afforded a more secure foothold.

On all sides of the cone there are openings through which steam escaped with more or less energy. I observed from some vents the steam was emitted at regular intervals, while from others it issued with no intermission. Around each vent there was a thick deposit of sulphur which gave off suffocating vapors.

The islands were visited by Drs. C. Hart Merriam and T. C. Mendenhall of the Bering Sea Fur Seal Commission in 1891. Dr. Merriam writes thus of New Bogoslof as seen at that time:

The new volcano was enveloped in steam, which issued from thousands of small cracks and crannies and poured in vast clouds from a few great fissures and crater-like openings, the principal of which was near the northwest corner, only a few feet above high water mark. From this opening, the shape of which we could not see, it rushed out with a loud roaring noise. So great was the quantity of steam that it completely concealed the upper part of the island except when wafted to and fro by violent gusts of wind. . . . The steam was usually impregnated with fumes of sulphur, and deposits of sulphur, some in very fine needles, were observed along the margins of the cracks.

Of the third Bogoslof, Dr. Charles H. Gilbert, of Stanford University, who was in charge of the work of the Albatross when the 'brand new mountain' was first seen on May 28, 1906, writes thus in a personal letter regarding it:

When I saw it (Bogoslof) in 1890 there were really two small islands about 1 miles apart, one of them steaming and the other already cooled off. This has been the condition for a number of years, so the hot one had received the name of Fire Island, the cold one, Castle Island. When they came in sight yesterday, we were astonished to find that Fire Island was no longer smoking and that a very large third island had arisen half way between the other two. It was made of jagged, rugged lava and was giving off clouds of steam and smoke