GREAT EARTHQUAKE OP SEPTEMBER TENTH 365 



The plumb bob kept swinging slightty. There were at least four after- 

 shocks and the earth vibrated practically all day. The after-shocks came 

 at 12h. 7m. 8s., at 5h. 36m. 8s., at 5h. 44m. 2s., and the final one at 5h. 

 51m. 41s. The last one was stronger than those preceding. 



The topographic effects within a radius of 10 to 15 miles of this camp, 

 observed while making soundings and surveying shorelines on the Copper 

 Eiver delta during and after these earthquakes, consisted only of the 

 sliding down of an occasional overhanging tree or soft bank or the soft 

 portion of an overhanging rocky bluff. ^^ 



Chugach Mountains. — In the Chugach Mountains, 240 miles north- 

 west of Yakutat, Lieutenant Babcock and the army officers building the 

 military trail observed the great earthquake at 10.45 a. m.^^ It lasted a 

 minute and ten seconds. Avalanches probably attended it, for peculiar 

 reports similar to those of the preceding Sunday were heard. 



In another part of the Chugach Mountains, about 55 miles east of 

 Valdez Inlet, Mr. J. D. Jefferson, assistant postmaster at Yaldez, who 

 was encamped on Fall Creek, saw the trees and mountains swaying. A 

 tent pulled and strained at its ropes. There was a great avalanche. 

 What is described as a sickened feeling came over the observers. 



At Valdez Village, still farther west, Dr. L. S. Camicia was so dizzy 

 that he could not stand. A tidal wave 7 feet high came in from the 

 sea.''* The flagpole and the tops of trees vibrated.^^ Valdez had a popu- 

 lation of 315 in 1900 and presumably about the same in 1899. 



Kenai Mountains. — At Homer, on the end of a long sand spit in Kach- 

 omak Bay, Mr. George Jamme, a mining engineer, observed the great 

 earthquake on September 10 at a point 420 miles west of Yakutat. He 

 had arranged a swinging plumb bob after the shocks of the preceding 

 Sunday, and observed that during this earthquake the bob swung in an 

 ellipse with axes 9 and 17 inches long, the longer extending northwest- 

 southeast. 



Cool' Inlet.- — At Ladds Station, 5 miles north of Tyonek and 410 miles 

 northwest of Yakutat, Lieut. E. F. Glenn, of the U. S. Army, felt the 

 earthquake while eating. It was very severe, lasting long enough for 

 him to walk out of a frame building, and it was perceptible afterward. 

 Tlie building rocked back and forth and every person or animal staggered 

 or reeled. 



53 Annual Report T7. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington, September, 1901, p. 

 206. 



s» Diary of Lieutenant Babcock. 



M Seattle Dally Times, September 29. 1899. 



™ Phlllpp Glesener : Personal communication. 



