SPHAGNUM BOGS OF ALASKA 177 



Superintendent George A. Learn of the Baptist Orphanage 

 on Wood Island also stated that there had been several sphagnum 

 bogs of considerable extent on that island previous to the eruption 

 but that they are now all covered deep with volcanic ash. From 

 the fact that there are usually slopes draining into the bogs and 

 that they have no outlet this loose volcanic material has soon 

 accumulated in the bogs. No doubt many bogs on Kodiak 

 Island, Afognak Island and the neighboring islands that received 

 a heavy fall of ash from this eruption have been so completely 

 buried that they are no longer recognizable as bogs. The bogs at 

 Three Saints Bay and at Lazy Bay, Kodiak Island, described 

 above are toward the western end of the island where there was 

 no fall of ash from the Katmai eruption. 



MITROFANIA BAY, JULY 20-25 



There is a small bog perhaps 150 feet in diameter situated near 

 Mitrofania village, on Alaska Peninsula. The bog is entirely con- 

 fined to the undrained area and does not anywhere extend over the 

 crest of the rocks that prevent drainage from it. The following 

 are the dominant plants of the bog — Sphagnum sp., Empetrum 

 nigrum, Eriophorum sp., Vaccinium vitis-idaea. Iris setosa also 

 grew in the bog. The growth of sphagnum in this bog did not 

 cover the surface so completely as in the other bogs described. 



In a large meadow at another point in Mitrofania Bay there was 

 a small patch of Empetrum nigrum with some mosses (not sphagnum) 

 and lichens growing in it. The surrounding area was covered 

 with grass and flowers but this empetrum-dominated area was 

 entirely devoid of such vegetation. It was similar to empetrum- 

 dominated areas that the writer has seen at Three Saints Bay 

 and elsewhere in Alaska. It was slightly higher than the sur- 

 rounding meadow and was soft and cushion-like to the step, 

 much resembling a sphagnum bog. On pulling up the plants it 

 was found that their lower portions were dead and a little farther 

 down w^ere decayed and had formed peat. 



At an elevation of about 1500 feet on a mountain near Mitro- 

 fania village the Writer found Ledum palustre growing on the rocks 

 along with Empetrum nigrum and Vaccinium vitis-idaea. 



