IV.] THE VOLCANOES OF AVATCHA BAY. 69 



scenery is on a large scale, and a reference to the chart explains the 

 matter in five figures.^ 



]\Ir. Frederick "VVliymper, in his " Travel and Adventure in the 

 Territory of Alaska," has given an excellent illustration of this 

 group of mountains. Koriatska, to the north and west, stands 

 alone. Avatchmska and Kozelska are somewhat less lofty, the 

 former being close upon nine thousand feet; while the latter is, 

 according to different observers, either 5328 or 9054 feet - in height. 

 Such a discrepancy can only be accounted for by the supposition 

 that Avatchmska should be credited with the latter figures. 

 During ]\Ir. Whymper's visit in 1865, Koriatska alone emitted 

 smoke, the others being apparently extinct ; but in the month of 

 June, ten years previously, j\Ir. Tronson found Kozelska m action, 

 sending forth dense volumes of smoke, and covering the surface of 

 the water with ashes.^ Since then there do not appear to have been 

 any eruptions, and in spite of the white pennant floating at the 

 peak, the grand old mountain looks calm and peaceful enough, 

 guarding the lonely stretches of forest and tundra at its base. 



It is only with an effort that one withdraws one's gaze from the 

 exquisite beauty of mountains such as these. What is it that 

 influences us so deeply in the sight of those eternal snows ? In 

 what lies that wondrous charm that we experience only m the 

 regions of the north ? After many years of travel I think that 

 there is one scene which has, perhaps, remained more \d^'idly 

 stamped upon my memory than any other — a placid river in 

 northern Lapland, down whose stream I floated, drinking in the 

 perfect beauties of the changing autumn. Amid all the mass of 

 scarlet and gold that huno- above the mirror-like surface of the 

 water not a single leaf was stming, — not a sound was to be heard. 



1 The height of Koriatska is 11,554 feet. 



- Tronson, — "Voyage of the .Barracoitto," p. 109. 



^ Fi'om the fact that Mr. Tronson appeared to consider Avatchinska and Koriatska 

 as one and the same monntain, and gave an erroneous height for Kozelska, it seems 

 far more probable that it was the first-named volcano tliat was really in eruption at 

 the time of his visit. 



