THE BOGOSLOFS 487 



Of the advent of the first island, in 1796, the following account is 

 given in Kotzebue's narrative of discovery in 1817. The story is that 

 of a Kussian trader, Kriukof, who found himself with some native 

 hunters forced to seek refuge from storm on the north end of Umnak 

 Island, the island of the Aleutian chain, nearest the Bogoslofs. It 

 was in May and when the storm cleared on the 8th, Kotzebue tells us : 



They saw to the N., several miles from land, a column of smoke ascending 

 from the sea; toward evening they observed under the smoke something black, 

 which arose but a little above the surface of the water. During the night fire 

 ascended into the air near the spot, and sometimes so violent, and to such 

 height, that on their island, which was ten miles distant, everything could be 

 distinctly seen by its light. An earthquake shook their island, and a frightful 

 noise echoed from the mountains in the S. The poor hunters were in deadly 

 anxiety; the rising island threw stones towards them, and they every moment 

 expected to perish. At the rising of the sun the quaking ceased, the fire visibly 

 decreased, and they now plainly saw an island of the form of a pointed black 



The Three Bogoslofs, May, 1906. 



cap. When Kriukof visited the island of Oomnak, a month afterward, he found 

 the new island, which during that time had continued to emit fire, considerably 

 higher. After that time it threw out less fire, but more smoke : it had increased 

 in height and circumference, and often changed its form. For four years no 

 more smoke was seen, and in the eighth year the hunters resolved to visit it. 

 as they observed that many sea lions resorted to it. The water round the 

 island was found warm, and the island itself so hot in many places that they 

 could not tread on it. 



The eruption of 1883, which resulted in the rise of New Bogoslof, 

 seems to have had no eye-witnesses and the exact date of its appearance 

 is unknown. Captain Anderson of the schooner Matthew Turner 



