Living and lately dead Volcanoes. 145 



' Volcanic Phenomena. 



Active Volcanoes. 



Volcanic activity in the United States within historical times 

 has been confined wholly to Alaska, and, excepting somewhat 

 mythical eruptions of mount Calder on Prince of Wales island 

 in 171(5, and of mount Edgecumbe in 1796 it has been confined 

 to the southwestern extremity of the territory. The most 

 easterly known crater which shows any activity at present is 

 mount Wrangell. This was observed for several days during 

 August, 1891, from Taral, at the confluence of Chittenah and 

 - Copper rivers. It lies about fifty-five miles nearly north of 

 Taral, and only the top of the mountain, a sharp black cone, 

 appears above the intervening broad snow-covered dome of 

 mount Blackburn. From this cone masses of densely black 

 vapor were constantly rising. At intervals of about half a 

 minute a cloudy pillar would rear itself to a height of several 

 thousand feet and, floating off toward the east, quickly dis- 

 appear, to be replaced by another burst of vapor from the 

 crater. No illumination of the vapor was noticed at night and, 

 so far as I could learn from the chief Mcolai, no appearance of 

 fire was ever seen. According to the diary of John Brenner,* a 

 miner, who spent the winter of 1884- '85 at Taral, the volcano 

 was at that time in a state of somewhat violent eruption. He 

 says : 



" The volcano has been very quiet a good while, but today it is send- 

 ing out a vast column of smoke and hurling immense stones hundreds of 

 feet higli in the air. The masses it is tlirowing up must be very large to 

 be seen here. * * * It has made no loud reports, only a sort of rum- 

 bling noise." 



It is possible that an active volcano may exist east of mount 

 Wrangell in the upper White river basin, but our information 

 as to its existence depends on the vague and unreliable state- 

 ments of the Yukon natives — statements that may refer to 

 mount Wrangell. Some sharp cones were seen northwest of 

 lake Wellesley and also some in the St Elias mountains between 

 Klutlan glacier and Scolai pass. Their volcanic origin, how- 

 ever, could only be inferred, and any present activity would 



* The Shores and Alps of Alaska, H. W. Seton Karr : London, 1887, p. 

 219. 



