ta 



— IrasS^effi^ft'M "" 1 i ' 



Photograph by R. F. Griggs 



ASH SLIDES IN UPPER KATMAI VALLEY 



"Wherever the mountains were precipitous and too steep for the ash to stick, it slid down 

 into the valley, covering the lower slopes with great fans of sand" (see text, page 34) 



of this stream as it wrestled with the 

 pumice in its bed. Dammed up in the 

 failure of a previous attempt, it would 

 gradually accumulate enough energy for 

 a new effort. Then suddenly breaking 

 loose from its bonds, it would rush for- 

 ward down the slope, pushing a pile of 

 pumice before it, as though to engulf the 

 onlooker, writhing this way and that like 

 a live thing, picking up pieces of pumice 

 and floating them along as it came. Be- 

 fore it had gone far, however, its new 

 load would literally choke it, and it would 

 give up the struggle in a hiss of grating 

 pumice stones. 



It was quite a problem to secure water 

 from such streams. • The water always 

 carried such quantities of large angular 

 pumice fragments, not to speak of sand 

 and mud, that it was out of the question 

 to attempt to wash in the brooks. If we 

 tried, the pumice would so grind into our 

 flesh as to prohibit any further efforts at 

 cleanliness. But while washing is a mat- 

 ter of choice, one must drink whether or 

 no. We were obliged everywhere to 



strain our water through one of our food- 

 bags. Often we would have to strain a 

 quart of pumice to get a pint of water. 

 The stream changed so rapidly that we 

 sometimes had to move before we could 

 fill a bucket. Straining, of course, re- 

 moved only the coarser grit. 



At one of the camps our water was so 

 full of mud that Mr. Folsom refused to 

 wash his face for three days, because he 

 "did not want to dirty it with the water 

 we had to drink." 



CAVERNS FORMED BY SNOW MELTING 

 BENEATH THE ASH 



The day after crossing Soluka Creek 

 we climbed the mountain to the west in 

 hopes of seeing the volcano, for we 

 feared lest the fine weather which had 

 favored us would come to an end before 

 we should attain our object. Our quest, 

 however, was vain, for when we reached 

 the summit we found that another sum- 

 mit, not marked on our map, cut off our 

 view so that we could not see Mount Kat- 

 mai. This we called Barrier Mountain. 



36 



