366 L. MARTIN ALASKAN EARTHQUAKES OF 1899 



Upper Yukon Y alley. — In the Birch Creek district, west of Circle and 

 about 430 miles northwest of Yakutat/ Mr. J. E. Kinnaley felt an earth- 

 quake September 11, 1899 (probably September 10), which lasted long 

 enough for one to run 20 feet. The ground seemed to be moving and 

 sinking at the same time. There was a landslide at Pitkas Bar, on 

 Birch Creek. Twenty miles distant, on Independence Creek, the water 

 was thrown out of a sluice-box. 



At Eagle, 340 miles north of Yakutat, the U. S. Weather Bureau ob- 

 server. Judge W. G. Myers, felt the September 10 shock at 12.15 p. m. 

 This is stated to be 141st meridian time, based on observations of the sun 

 every few days. The shock lasted three or four seconds, jarring sus- 

 pended mercurial barometers against rings at the bottom, beside causing 

 poles to vibrate, lamps to swing, and tin plates on shelves to rattle. 



In the Forty-Mile district, 290 miles north of Yakutat, Mr. F. Denni- 

 son reports a shaking of the ground observed by a number of prospectors 

 in and near Jack Wade Creek. The exact date in September, 1899, was 

 not recorded, but it may safely be presumed to be the 10th rather than 

 the 3d because of the time of the shock, about noon. 



Klondike Trail. — At the mouth of Stewart Eiver, on the Yukon, 240 

 miles north of Yakutat, Judge Lars Gunderson, United States commis- 

 sioner, felt very light shocks during the first ten days of September, 1899. 

 People noticed clothes swinging gently from lines inside their houses. 

 Many persons were dizzy. 



At Fort Selkirk, where the Lewes and Pelly rivers unite to form the 

 Yukon, and 215 miles north of Yakutat, one of these shocks in Septem- 

 ber, 1899, is said to have been felt, the date and hour not being recorded. 



At Five Fingers rapids in the Lewes River, the Canadian telegraph 

 operator wired to Whitehorse on September 10, shortly after 1.30 p. m., 

 that he had just felt the great earthquake. 



The foreman of a party engaged in building a winter trail near Five 

 Fingers rapids relates that they were having lunch near the new tele- 

 graph line and had their attention attracted to the earthquake by the vio- 

 lent swaying of the wire and the heaving of the trees. Several men were 

 seized with vertigo and the distant booming sound caused great conster- 

 nation. 



At Tantalus, or Carmacks, near 62° 6' north latitude and 136° 15' 

 west longitude, 190 miles north of Yakutat, the earthquake was recorded 

 September 10 in the post diary of the Tantalus detachment, Royal North- 

 west mounted police, at 11.45 a. m., as a rather severe shock. This time 

 record is probably more nearly correct than that at Five Fingers, near by. 

 Strong after-shocks were felt at 11.55 a. m., at 12.30 p. m., and at 12.45 

 p. m. 



