**. 



Photograph by R. F. Griggs 



AN ASH SLIDE: S0EUKA CREEK 



Some of these slides spread out into gigantic fans more than a thousand feet high. 

 Standing at the critical angle, their slopes are very hard climbing. We soon ground our 

 finger-nails to the quick in the sharp sand of these slides. 



We tried to cross the pass to reach a 

 position where we could see the condi- 

 tion of the volcano, but were balked by 

 a new kind of difficulty. On the way up 

 one of us, sticking his staff into the 

 ground harder than usual, discovered that 

 it went through into a cavern beneath. 

 Examination showed that we were sup- 

 ported on an arch of ash a foot thick, 

 spanning a deep hole. 



We found that the mountains every- 

 where were deeply covered with snow, 

 which was concealed by a mantle of ash 

 and pumice blown over it by the wind. 

 The snow beneath was rapidly melting 

 out in the warm weather, leaving the ash 

 surface standing as smooth as ever above 

 the cavity. 



Such small holes as the one into which 

 we had accidentally broken were, of 

 course, of no consequence; but as we 

 looked down one of the side valleys, we 

 could see great cave-ins in an apparently 

 smooth ash field, where a stream burrow- 

 ing through the snowdrifts beneath had 

 undermined the surface. For half a mile 

 or so the tunnel thus made had caved in, 

 and then for another half mile it was still 

 intact, giving no indication of its presence 

 to an unwary traveler (see page 41). 



Reflectincf on the significance of such 



phenomena for us, we carefully chose a 

 path free from all appearance of buried 

 snowdrifts. We had not gone a hundred 

 yards, however, when I happened to 

 stamp my foot and was astonished to hear 

 the ground beneath me ring hollow. We 

 quickly retreated, spread out, and tried 

 another place. We had not gone far 

 when all three of us at once, though 50 

 feet apart, detected a cavern beneath us. 

 We had absolutely no means of judging 

 whether the hole was 5 feet deep or 50, 

 nor of estimating the strength of the roof. 

 The danger of such a situation was 

 altogether too great to undertake, so we 

 reluctantly turned back, with as yet no 

 view of the volcano. 



AN AWE-INSPIRING VAELEY OF DEATH 



The following day we started to en- 

 circle the mountains into upper Katmai 

 Valley. As we proceeded the country 

 became progressively more desert. Small 

 birds which were common in the lower 

 valley were absent here. The stillness of 

 the dead forest was oppressive. One 

 could travel all day without hearing a. 

 sound but his own footfalls and the- 

 plunge of rushing water. The bear trails, 

 persisted until we turned the corner into, 

 the upper valley, but there they disap- 



37 



