I'lioto and copyright by John JJ. Thwaites 



i;dge; of volcanic cloud, looking southwe;st 



FROM THL "dORA," 75 MILLS FROM 

 VOLCANO (SLL PAGL 133) 



scured, the light snuffed out hke a candle 

 and we were left in absolute darkness." 



Mr. Thwaites' further statement of 

 conditions during the darkness and fall 

 of ashes on night of June 6, as published 

 in the Sczuard Gatczvay of June 15, is as 

 follows : 



"And now began the real rain of ashes ; 

 it fell in torrents ; it swirled and eddied. 

 Gravity seemed to have nothing to do 

 with the course of its fall. The under 

 side of the decks seemed to catch as much 

 ashes as the sides or the decks under our 

 feet. Bright clusters of electric light 

 could be seen but a few feet away, and 

 we had to feel our wav about the deck. 



The officers of the deck had to close 

 the wmdows of the pilot-house 

 tightly, and even then it was with 

 the greatest difficulty that the man 

 at the wheel could see the compass, 

 through the thick dust that filled the 

 room. In the meantime, lurid 

 flashes of lightning glared contin- 

 uously round the ship, while a con- 

 stant boom of thunder, sometimes 

 coinciding with the flash, increased 

 the horror of the inferno raging 

 about us. As far as seeing or hear- 

 ing the water, or anything pertain- 

 ing to earth, we might as well have 

 been miles above the surface of the 

 water. And still we knew the sun 

 was more than two hours above 

 the horizon. 



"In the saloon everything was 

 white with a thick layer of dust, 

 while a thick haze filled the air. 

 The temperature raised rapidly, and 

 the air, what there Avas left of it, 

 became heavy, sultry, and stifling. 

 Below deck conditions were unbear- 

 able, while on deck it was worse 

 still. Dust filled our nostrils, sifted 

 doAvn our backs, and smote the eye 

 like a dash of acid. Birds floun- 

 dered, crying wildly, through space 

 and fell helpless to the deck." 



BLACKNESS OF NIGHT AT MIDDAY 



The events at Kodiak during the 

 eruption, including the appearance 

 of the black volcanic clouds, the 

 rain of ashes, the 60 hours of al- 

 most continual darkness, the pre- 

 cautions taken for the safety of the 

 people, and the welcome return of 

 clear skies, have already been vividly de- 

 scribed in these pages by Captain Perry, 

 of the revenue cutter Manning ^^ and 

 will not be repeated in detail here. 



The volcanic clouds were first noticed 

 about 4 p. m., June 6, in the south and 

 west. Another cloud afterward appeared 

 in the north, the two meeting in the 

 northeast. Ash began to fall at 5 p. m., 

 coming in gradually increasing volume. 

 At 7 p. m. complete darkness had shut 

 down. Thunder and lightning Avere ob- 

 served soon after the cloud appeared, and 



*(See National Geographic Magazine, vol. 

 XXIII, No. 8, pp. 824-832.) 



154 



