EFFECTS OF THE EARTHQUAKE OF 1899 49 



wave, while north of there, half way to point Latouche, the forest is swept 

 away over a considerable distance (plate 20, figure 1). 



It is inferred from these facts that the destructive earthquake wave 

 was local in its effects, and it is noteworthy that the two places where it 

 has left the clearest records of its destructiveness are along the lines 

 where we have the best evidence of faulting, namely, along the east shore 

 of Yakutat bay, between Knight island and point Latouche, and on the 

 west shore of Disenchantment bay, near Black glacier. 



In the latter place, about at the southern end of the high-level shore- 

 line which extends up to Turner glacier, the cottonwood forest ends 

 abruptly approximately a quarter of a mile back from the shore, along a 

 line which is fringed with piles of dead trunks at an elevation of 30 feet 

 vertically above the driftwood line of the present storm beach. That this 

 is not an elevated shoreline is proved by the fact that between it and the 

 coast is an old dead cottonwood tree in place, eroded of its bark at the 

 level to which the driftwood reaches, and with a little pile of driftwood 

 on its northern side. Between this and the bay are many mature dead 

 willows in place with dead shoots broken and bent southward. 



A still clearer instance of destruction by the earthquake wave is found 

 just north of Logan beach, about half way between Knight island and 

 point Latouche (plate 20, figure 1). Here the present beach is littered 

 with trees, often with branches and roots still clinging; the elevated 

 beach is also covered with forest debris ; and a still higher, older elevated 

 beach, on which a mature forest had grown, has had its forest almost 

 completely stripped off. Even beyond this there is a wild confusion of 

 fallen and partly fallen trees. There is, in one locality, absolute destruc- 

 tion of timber up to 40 feet above sealevel ; and between it and the present 

 shore there is a tangle of fallen trees. The trees are overturned, twisted, 

 broken, and uprooted, giving rise to such a scene of devastation as only 

 rushing water could produce. Being evidently along a fault line, it is 

 probable that the devastation by the tidal wave was assisted by a prelim- 

 inary shaking of the gravelly soil, which rendered the uprooting of the 

 trees here easier than in other situations. 



At cape Stoss, near the head of Russell fiord, there is proof of the pas- 

 sage of a water wave across the low neck of land which joins the rocky 

 cape to the mainland. This proof is the presence of enormous quantities 

 of driftwood on the neck at levels well above that of the upraised shoreline 

 at this point. In one place the driftwood is wrapped around an enormous 

 boulder near the highest part of the neck and several hundred yards from 

 the beach. The natives report that here, and in other places, their best 

 wild strawberry beds were destroyed during the earthquake, and have not 



