HISTORY OF A TSUNAMI — ROBERTS 335 



the shock was now gone, and in its place there swept back and forth 

 with the tides some 90 feet or more of water — more than enough to 

 float the largest ship in existence. 



Topographic changes and differences in water depths were found in 

 profusion. As if to balance the loss of Point Turner, 100 feet of the 

 north end of Khantaak Island was found to have disappeared. The 

 Pathfinder found sea bottom risen in places jls much as 78 feet and 

 simken equally in others. Extensive portions of the shores of Yakutat 

 Bay were gone, fallen into the sea with deep water flowing in their 

 places. Such circumstances invalidate existing maps and charts, forc- 

 ing the Coast and Geodetic Survey to plan comprehensive new surveys 

 of both land and sea in its effort to keep up with this corner of the 

 changing world. Geologists and seismologists are sure to study the 

 area for yeai*s to come. 



While Yakutat Bay rearranged itself, the small fishing and com- 

 mercial port from which the bay takes its name had its own share of 

 excitement. Bridges, docks, and warehouses were damaged. The 

 ground cracked near Mrs. Walton's cannery. Objects fell in pro- 

 fusion, and a water tank collapsed in a twisted pile. The harbor cur- 

 rents flowed the wrong way past the waterfront, and the so-called 

 Millpond near the airport sloshed violently. The ramp rose and fell 

 like the waves of the sea, while 1,100 helium cylinders, which had been 

 stacked in neat array, all fell to the south as though bowing toward the 

 origm of all the commotion. Virgil Mann reported a similar freak of 

 nature from Lake Crillon, where whole stands of spruce trees had 15 

 feet of their tops broken off and thrown head down toward the south- 

 west. 



But the most violent effects were in Lituya Bay, only 15 miles from 

 the source of all the trouble. Six and a half miles long and two miles 

 wide, with deep water and good anchorages, it is the only refuge — one 

 ordained by nature to be precarious, at that — in the long stretch of 

 forbidding coast between Cape Spencer and Yakutat Bay, and it has 

 consequent interest for mariners seeking shelter from the rough seas 

 of the Pacific. 



Lituya Bay was discovered in 1786 by the French explorer Jean 

 Frangois de Galoup, Comte de la Perouse, in the course of a voyage 

 of discovery with the vessels Astrolabe (named for a traditional astro- 

 nomical instrument) and Boussole. He named it "Port des Frangais," 

 but early Russian charts showed it as "Altua Bay," and the whalemen 

 of the 19th century knew it, for obvious reasons, as "Frenchman's 

 Bay." La Perouse described it as a place of great beauty by reason 

 of the surrounding tree-clad hills and the majestic backdrop of the 

 snowy Fairweathei-s. It had sandy shores abounding with straw- 

 berries, and the glaciers at its head discharged small sparkling ice- 



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