SOME FAMOUS EARTHQUAKES 



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. 

 ... On all sides of the cone there are openings through 

 which steam escaped with more or less energy. " 



Seven years after that Drs. Merriam and Mendenhall, 

 of the Behring Sea Seal Commission, found the newer 

 island still smoking, steaming, and occasionally roaring 

 like a giant steam escape. The older island had quite 

 cooled, and had become a sheer cliff or hill of cold ashes, 

 and was, and is, the home of countless sea birds, as well as 

 of a small herd of sea lions. Captain Cook, in the 

 eighteenth century, had passed by the neighbourhood of 

 this island. This was eighteen years, however, before it 

 was born, and he named a pillar of ash or rock which he 

 found there Ship Rock. Ship Rock fell in ruins five 

 years after the birth of Fire Island. 



Since that time the new island has again sunk beneath 

 the waves. But it will probably rise again, or another 

 island somewhere in its neighbourhood will take its place, 

 for a great new submarine ridge of volcanic rocks is forming 

 in this neighbourhood and has been forming for many 

 hundreds of years. The Pribyloff Islands are known to 

 be volcanic from the materials of which they are com- 

 posed, and sprang up above the waves in the same way. 



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