Photograph by B. B. Fulton 

 THE AUTHOR STRUGGLING THROUGH THE QUICKSAND OF KATMAI RIVER 



The swift water running over the ash and pumice packs the surface, giving it a crust 

 which sometimes holds a man and sometimes breaks under his weight. Crossing these flats 

 is somewhat like traveling in snow with a weak crust. One will go along easily ankle deep 

 for a few steps and then suddenly drop down to his waist. The labor involved in such travel 

 cannot be described, but must be experienced to be appreciated (see text, page 41). 



As we gradually came fully to compre- 

 hend what a tremendous catastrophe this 

 flood had been, we were more and more 

 thankful for the good luck which had 

 delayed our expedition until after it had 

 passed. If we had landed a week earlier, 

 we would certainly have been over- 

 whelmed, unless by chance we had hap- 

 pened to be on high ground, out of the 

 valley, at the time of the disaster. 



We had finally penetrated as far as we 

 could up the valley and camped, as we 

 hoped, about opposite Mount Katmai ; 

 but we could not be sure of our position, 

 for the clouds hung low. 



A FLOW OF BRIGHT RED MUD MORE THAN 

 TWO MILES LONG 



Here we beheld a formation quite dif- 

 ferent from anything else we had seen. 

 A ravine which branched off from the 

 main valley behind a spur of the moun- 

 tain was filled by what looked like a great 

 glacier, except that its color was a bright 



terra-cotta red. In every detail of its 

 form except for its crevasses it was ex- 

 actly like a glacier : beginning at a con- 

 siderable elevation, where the ravine was 

 narrow, it sloped evenly down to the 

 valley level, widening as it descended, so 

 as to assume a triangular form. 



If the color had not been so different 

 from everything else in the landscape, we 

 would have been quite sure it was a 

 glacier covered with dirt. But in such 

 a situation no glacier could have escaped 

 without a thick covering of the omni- 

 present ash. We concluded, therefore, 

 that it must be a mass of mud which had 

 run down off the volcano. 



Later, when we visited it, its structure 

 confirmed this theory. As it lay on top 

 of the ash, it had evidently been formed 

 since the eruption. Although it was hard 

 and firm, so as to be easy walking, both 

 its structure and its form showed clearly 

 that it had reached its position in a semi- 

 fluid condition. Like a glacier, it had a 



39 



