362 L. MARTIN ^ALASKAN EARTHQUAKES OF 1899 



1906/® and of Hidden, Lucia, and Hubbard glaciers between 1906 and 

 1909.3^ 



Yakutat. — At the village of Yakutat, 30 miles from Disenchantment 

 Bay, the great earthquake was observed, and has been described by Mr. 

 Beasley,*^ the storekeeper; Mr. Hill,*^ a surveyor; Eev. Mr. Johnson,*^ 

 the missionary; Mrs. Esther Early, a native woman; W. M. Rock,** a 

 prospector, and many other whites and Yakutat natives. 



Some of the facts mentioned below are also from correspondence and 

 from conversations. The harbor and settlement at Yakutat is shown in 

 figure 6. 



Mr. Beasley states that the great earthquake came at 12.15, agreeing 

 closely with the computed time records. It had a duration of five sec- 

 onds. All the canned goods on the shelves and all the kettles, pails, and 

 lanterns hanging from nails overhead were shaken to the floor of the 

 store. There were waves in the ground and water waves in the bay. 



Mr. Hill states that people were unable to walk or stand without hold- 

 ing to something. The church bell in its tower was rung by the tremors. 

 Three great waves rolled into the bay at intervals of about five minutes, 

 raising the level of the water 15 feet and nearly washing away some of 

 the native houses. Mr. Beasley states that the water rose 8 or 10 feet in 

 as many minutes. Mrs. Early observed that the water ran out a long 

 distance before the coming of the first great wave. 



After this shock all the inhabitants of Yakutat except Mr. Beasley 

 lived in tents on the hills above town. There were 247 inhabitants at 

 Yakutat in 1900 and presumably about the same number in 1899. 



The residents agree that the old native cemetery on Khantaak Island 

 was partly destroyed by subsidence during this earthquake (figure 6), 

 which was along a fault-line (H, figure 5), as the linear arrangement 

 of subsidence shows. Near Ocean Cape sand vents, or craterlets, devel- 

 oped during this shock, leaving holes 4 or 5 feet deep and scattering sand 

 6 inches deep over several acres. About ten acres in this vicinity were 

 also affected by fissuring, looking as if plowed by great furrows about 4 



^ R. S. Tarr : Recent advance of glaciers in the Yakutat Bay region, Alaska. Bull. 

 Geol. Soc. Am., vol. 18, 1907, pp. 257-286 ; and Professional Paper no. 64, U. S. Geo- 

 logical Survey, 1909. 



^ R. S. Tarr and Lawrence Martin : National Geographic Magazine, vol. xxxi, 1910, 

 pp. 1-54. 



Lawrence Martin : Popular Science Monthly, vol. Ixxvi, 1910, pp. 293-305. 



*o R. W. Beasley : The Sitka Alaskan, September 16, 1899. 



" C. E. Hill : Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 23, 1899 ; San Francisco Examiner, 

 dispatch dated Seattle, September 21, 1899 ; Toronto World, September 25, 1899. 



*a Rev. Albin Johnson : Report of Commissioner of Education, 1898-9, vol. 2, p. 1402. 



«W. M. Rock: Victoria Semi- Weekly Colonist, October 12, 1899. 



