488 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



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 Portola- 

 Tomales rift of April, 1906. 



The islands were visited in 1884 by the officers of the U. S. Eevenue 

 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 tp continue the ascent by 

 picking my way over rocks whose surfaces, being exposed to the air, were some- 

 what 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. Menden- 

 hall 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 Uni- 

 versity, 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 1S90 there were really two small islands about 

 iy 2 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 



