IN GREEN ALASKA 



volcanic mountains, among them one perfect cone, 

 probably three thousand feet high. 



In the Shumagins three men elected to leave the 

 ship to dredge the sea and study the volcanic forma- 

 tion of the land. We promised to pick them up on 

 our return ten days hence. At ten o'clock our anchor 

 was up and we were oflF for Unalaska. The event of 

 this day was the view we had of the twin volcanic 

 peaks of Pavlof , rising from the shore to an altitude 

 of seven or eight thousand feet. One of them was 

 a symmetrical cone, with black converging lines of 

 rock cutting through the snow like the ribs of an 

 umbrella; the other was more rugged and irregu- 

 lar, with many rents upon its sides and near its sum- 

 mit, from which vapors issued, staining the snow 

 like smoke from a chimney. Sheets of vapor were 

 also seen issuing from cracks at its foot near the sea 

 level. We were specially fortunate in viewing these 

 grand mountains under such favorable weather 

 conditions. 



On this day also, just after passing Pavlof, we 

 were for hours in sight of the Aghileen Pinnacles, 

 which have such a strange architectural effect amid 

 the wilder and ruder forms that surround them, as 

 if some vast, many-spired cathedral of dark gray 

 stone were going to decay there in the mountain soli- 

 tude. Both in form and color they seemed alien to 

 everything about them. Now we saw them athwart 

 the crests of smooth green hills, then rising behind 

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