302 



MERRIAM 



shadowed the eventual destruction of the peaks, for it 

 seems safe to predict that before the close of another 

 century the splendid cliffs and bold headlands will have 

 disappeared. 



The way trifling disturbances hasten the general down- 

 fall was pointed 

 out by Cantwell 

 in 1 884. He fired 

 a rifle-shot into 

 a flock of sea- 

 birds, " myriads 

 of which were 

 perched in the 

 clefts and niches 

 of the rock, and 

 when they rose 

 small pieces of 

 stone were de- 

 tached and in turn 

 displaced larger 

 pieces until a perfect avalanche of stone came down the 

 declivity, scoring great ruts in the hillside and tearing up 



FIG. 13. OLD BOGOSLOF FROM POND ON EAST SPIT, 



JULY, 1899. FROM PHOTOGRAPH BY HARRIMAN 



EXPEDITION. THE TOPS OF THE TWO 



PEAKS ARE HIDDEN BY FOG. 



FIG. 14. THE NEW AND OLD VOLCANOES IN 1890, FROM THE SOUTHWEST. 

 FROM PHOTOGRAPH BY U. S. FISH COMMISSION. 



great masses of stone, which were dashed to pieces on 

 the shore below." Thus even the birds may hasten the 

 processes of nature in bringing down the mountains. 



