152 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



or night. Vanka will tell you all about it. 

 So kissing and blessing you both, good-bye. 

 Forgive me. Perhaps we shall see each other 

 again. God is merciful. Pray for us. 



Your husband, Ivan Orloff. 



The earth is trembling; it lightens every 

 minute. It is terrible. We are praying. 



WHAT WAS SEEN FROM A PASSING 

 STEAMER 



The outburst on the afternoon of June 

 6 was witnessed from the. steamer Dora, 

 which was then passing through Sheli- 

 kof and Kupreanof straits, eastbound. 

 Capt. C. B. McMullen, of the Dora, has 

 given the following description of the 

 phenomena which he observed: 



"Left Uyak at 8.45 a. m., June 6; 

 strong westerly breeze and fine clear 

 weather. At i o'clock p. m., while enter- 

 ing Kupreanof Straits, sighted a heavy 

 cloud of smoke directly astern, raising 

 from the Alaska Peninsula. I took bear- 

 ings of same, which I made out to be 

 Katmai Volcano, distance about 55 miles 

 away. The smoke arose and spread in 

 the sky, following the vessel, and by 3 

 p. m. was directly over us, having trav- 

 eled at the rate of 20 miles an hour,^ 



"At 6 p. m. passed through Uzinka 

 Narrows, fine and clear ahead, and con- 

 tinued on expecting to make Kodiak. 

 At 6.30 p. m., when ofif Spruce Rock, 

 which is about 3>^ miles from Mill Bay 

 Rocks and the entrance to Kodiak, ashes 

 commenced to fall and in a few minutes 

 we were in complete darkness, not even 

 the water over the ship's side could he 

 seen. 



"1 continued on in hopes that I might 

 pick up entrance to Kodiak, but when 

 vessel had run the distance by the log 

 conditions were the same, so I decided to 

 head out to sea and get clear of all dan- 

 ger. At 7.22 I set a course NE. by N. 

 (magnetic). Wind commenced to in- 

 crease rapidly now from the southwest 

 and vessel was driven before it. Heavy 

 thunder and lightning commenced early 

 in the afternoon and continued through 

 the night. Birds of all species kept fall- 

 ing on the deck in a helpless condition. 

 The temperature rose owing to the heat 

 of the volcanic ash, the latter permeat- 

 ing into all parts of the ship, even down 

 into the engine-room. 



"About 4.30 a. m. next day vessel 

 cleared the black smoke, emerging into a , 

 fiery red haze, which turned mto yellow, 

 and by 6 a. m. the ashes had ceased to 

 fall and the horizon was perfectly clear 

 from west to north. 



"The wind now came from the north- 

 west and vessel was headed for Chugach 

 Islands, as the smoke and ash was still 

 in the sky astern of us. 



"During the day Katmai continued to 

 be emitting volumes of smoke and could 

 be seen at a distance of over 100 miles. 



"The vessel was covered with ash from 

 trucks to deck, the decks having ashes 

 from 4 to 6 inches deep. 



"Made Seldovia June 7 at 8 p. m. and 

 Homer at 11 p. m. Leaving Homer at 

 11.30 p. m., proceeded on toward Seward. 

 At 3.30 to 4 a. m. passed through bank 

 of volcanic ash. At 7 a. m. vessel was in 

 complete darkness again and I dropped 

 the anchor near Clam Bay until 9.20; 

 clearing a little, proceeded again and run 

 out to sea. At 10 a. m. complete dark- 

 ness again, which continued throughout 

 the day until 4 p. m., when we ran out of 

 the smoke area into brilliantly clear 

 weather." 



THE RAIN OE ASHES 



John E. Thwaites, mail clerk on the 

 Dora, was quoted in a local paper as 

 saying that at i p. m. an immense column 

 of smoke was seen ascending from the 

 westward, its diameter seeming to be at 

 least half a mile or a mile. The column 

 rapidly became dimmer, and a dark mass 

 of cloud showed above it, mingled with 

 it, and came toward the steamer. Soon 

 the cloud obscured the column altogether, 

 and afterward lightning was seen in the 

 cloud. At 4 p. m. the edge of the cloud 

 was directly overhead and the pictures 

 were taken (see pages 154, 155). 



As the sun passed behind the edge of 

 the cloud at this time, it immediately be- 

 gan to grow dark. At 5 o'clock lights 

 were turned on. At 6 o'clock the ad- 

 vance edge of the cloud was out of sight 

 beyond the horizon, and small white 

 flakes began to fall. Darkness gradually 

 increased as the streak of clear sky in the 

 northwest narrowed, until "when the last 

 ribbon of clear sky was suddenly ob- 



