14 SALMON FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



moderately severe storms in safety. A secondary indentation is found between Karluk 

 Head and the mouth of Karluk River. This is a little cove with a fine gravelly beach 

 and is frequently resorted to for seining salmon. The Karluk River empties into the 

 bay at the point of the spit through a narrow and comparatively shallow mouth. 



KARLUK SPIT. 



(Frontispiece and Plate xxxvi.) 



The bay is separated from the Karluk River Valley by a low spit, which is about 

 three-fourths of a mile long, about 100 yards wide at its extremity at ordinary high 

 tides, and scarcely more than 30 yards wide at its head ; its average width is about 

 60 yards. Its ocean beach has already been described. The river beach in its lower 

 half is lined with moderately large bowlders, while the upper half contains finer gravel 

 and deposits of river ooze. The elevation is so slight that in severe storms the sea 

 washes over it into the river, flooding some of the buildings of the canning companies. 

 There is a thin soil along the ridge of the spit which is utilized by some of the work- 

 men for small vegetable gardens. The upper end of the spit not occupied by buildings 

 is covered with a heavy growth of grass and weeds. Mr. Booth describes the forma- 

 tion of this little peuinsula in the following words : "The spit is formed of loose gran- 

 ite gravel, washed into its present position by storms and tides from the bases of the 

 high granite cliffs which make the coast-line of this part of Kadiak Island so promi- 

 nent. These cliffs are constantly crumbling uuder the combined action of air, water, 

 and frost, and the talus thus formed is constantly being added to the spit, gradually 

 making it wider and longer. As the strongest prevailing gales come from the north- 

 east, tne debris is carried southwest to the further end of the spit, which accounts for 

 the present position of the river mouth and the difference in width of the spit. 



" There is hardly auy doubt that the present lagoon was at one time the estuary of 

 the river, then a far more powerful stream than at present and capable of carrying 

 out to sea the debris carried across its mouth. As the river dwindled in size and 

 volume the spit gradually encroached across its mouth, crowding it southwest along 

 the base of the cliff until its mouth reached the present location. 



"The granite cliffs, whose fragments have formed the spit, extend from Karluk 

 Head, a bold headland about one-half mile southwest of the river mouth to the south- 

 western shore of CJyak Bay and rise almost perpendicularly to a height of from 1,500 

 to 2,000 ieet. Tue first rise of the peak, called on the Coast Survey [charts] Cape 

 Karluk, I determined by transit observation to be about 1,600 feet high. 



" This peculiar shape of mouth is not confined to the Karluk River alone. The 

 Sturgeon and Little Rivers, distant respectively 4 miles southwest and about 30 miles 

 northeast of Karluk, have similarly shaped mouths, and in each can be seen the out- 

 lines of their old estuaries. 



" The ordinary tides on the beach at Karluk range from 12 to 18 feet, and in the 

 river from 3 to 5 feet. The tide reaches up the lagoon or old estuary shown on the 

 accompanying charts as far as the lower rapids, where the river and lagoon unite. 

 The river here is about 300 feet wide, the whole width of its bed being filled with 

 bowlders ; in summer the water is too shallow for a bidarka to pass. The velocity of 

 the current here is about 1| miles per hour." 



