14 ALASKA. 



large. The Peninsular country is more rolling and level, on 

 the north shore especially so ; for from Port Moller on up to the 

 head of Bristol Bay extensive flats make out from the high- 

 lands and stretch between them and the sea in width varying 

 from ten to sixty miles. 



There are a nuQiber of volcanoes in this district, such as that 

 of Makooshin, on Ounalashka Island, Akootan and Shishaldin, 

 on Oonimak, which, however, do not eject lava, but emit smoke, 

 steam, and ashes, although in times past and within the memory 

 of man large stones have been thrown out by many of them, 

 and still earlier lava has been poured out on Oonimak in immense 

 streams. The seared, rugged courses of the once liquid rock 

 make traveling on that island excessively fatiguing. Akootan, 

 on Akootan Island, and Makooshin are, perhaps, the most active, 

 or as lively as any in the Territory to-day. There has been no 

 disturbance on their account in the country for the last thirty 

 years to mention, but previous to that time many severe earth- 

 quake shocks have been recorded, and the growth of a new 

 island, Bogaslov, twenty miles north of Oomnak, in Bering 

 Sea, has been witnessed by the present generation, and I think 

 that the phenomena attending the appearance of this island far 

 «ut at sea and alone must have been coincident with the whole 

 listory of the formation of the Aleutian Chain, and therefore I 

 may be excused for giving the substance of tbe story as told by 

 ^several of the Eussian writers. 



In the fall of 1796 the residents of Oonimak and Ounalashka 

 Tvere surprised by a series of loud reports and tremblings of 

 the earth, followed by the appearance of a dense dark cloud, 

 full of gas and ashes, which came down upon them from the 

 sea to the northward, and, after a week or ten days, during 

 which time the cloud hung steadily over them, accompanied 

 with earthquakes and subterranean thunder, it cleared away 

 somewhat, so that they saw distinctly to the northward a bright 

 light burning above the sea, and, upon closer inspection in their 

 boats, the people found that a small island, elevated about 100 

 feet above sea-level, had been forced up and was still in the pro- 

 cess of elevation and enlargement, formed of lava and scoriae. 

 The volcanic action did not cease on this island until 1825, when 

 it left above the water an oval peak, almost inaccessible, iOb to 

 500 feet high, and four or five miles in circumference. It was 

 soon after this occupied by sea-lions and resorted to by sea-fowl, 



