Scientific Results of the Katmai Expeditions of the 

 National Geographic Society. 



IX. THE BEGINNINGS OF REVEGETATION IN 



KATMAI VALLEY. 



Robert F. Griggs. 



The effect of the great eruption of Mount Katmai in Alaska 

 on plant life, and the remarkable recovery of vegetation around 

 Kodiak have been discussed in previous papers of this series.^ 

 When it was observed with what rapidity the covering of ash at 

 Kodiak was being removed by erosion, and that the new plant 

 covering consisted almost entirely of old perennials which had 

 survived and come up through the ash, it became evident 

 that the main problem of revegetation must be worked out on 

 the mainland, where the destruction of the antecedent vegeta- 

 tion was more complete, and the deposits in which the new 

 plants must start very much deeper. 



The present paper is published as a record of the first stages 

 of the process in the valley of Katmai River, which, flowing 

 under the Volcano in a narrow canyon, spreads out and for some 

 twenty miles traverses a broad flat valley to the sea. (See 

 map, page 319). These fiats, in contrast to the steep mountains 

 round about, contain considerable areas favorable to the study 

 of revegetation. 



methods of work. 



A considerable part of the work of the expeditions, which 

 visited the country in 1915, 1916 and 1917, was the securing 

 of records, both descriptive and photographic, of definite 

 localities which may be visited at later dates and restudied 

 for the purpose of recording the progress of returning vegetation. 



'Griggs, R. F. Scientific Results of the Katmai Expeditions of the National 

 Geographic Society. 



I. The Recovery of Vegetation at Kodiak, Ohio Journal of Science 19: 1-57. 



191S. 

 IV. The Character of the Eruption as Indicated by Its Effect on Nearby 



Vegetation. Ohio Journal of Science, 19: 173-209. 1919. 



A full citation of literature is given in these papers, especially in I. General 

 accounts of the expeditions have appeared in the National Geographic Magazine 

 for January, 1917, and for February, 1918. 



318 



