The crest, as seen 

 . from the valley, forms 

 a great arc some three 

 miles in length, high- 

 est at the ends, and 

 broken in the middle 

 by a sharp, tooth-like 

 rock, which stands up 

 out of the lowest 

 place in the rim. 

 Even from the valley 

 the edges of this curv- 

 ing rim are so sharp 

 as to give the top a 

 hollow appearance, in- 

 dicative of the great 

 crater within (p. 48). 



MOUNT KATMAI IS 

 NOW MERELY A STUB 

 OF ITS FORMER BULK 



Although M ount 

 Katmai was seen by 

 many white men be- 

 fore the eruption, 

 there is no record of 

 any photograph or de- 

 scription of it ; so that 

 there is no very defi- 

 nite means of deter- 

 mining the configura- 

 tion of the mountain 

 before the explosion. 

 It was higher than 

 Mageik, however, and 

 originally must have 

 quite overshadowed 

 the latter, because, 

 though much less con- 

 spicuously placed in 

 the valley, it gave its name to both river 

 and town. The Coast and Geodetic Sur- 

 vey's chart of the district shows a three- 

 peaked mountain with an elevation of 

 7,500 feet. The highest peak was to the 

 south, while the middle one was 7,360 

 feet and the north 7,260 feet high re- 

 spectively. 



From the contours of the chart I have 

 made a diagram of the mountain before 

 the eruption for comparison with its pres- 

 ent condition (see page 49). But even 

 without the information given by the 

 chart, it is evident that the present moun- 

 tain is merely a stub of a much greater 

 peak of former days. 



Coming back into the lower valley after 

 the total desolation of the country in the 



Photograph by R. F. Griggs 

 A ROCK WHICH ROLLED OFF THE MOUNTAIN SIDE ACROSS OUR 

 TRAIL WFIILE WE WERE UP THE VALLEY 



shadow of the volcanoes was like regain- 

 ing the earth after a visit to the inferno. 

 How green the trees looked ! How the 

 birds sang! How beautiful the green 

 mountains ! And this was the country on 

 which we had exhausted our superlatives 

 of devastation in an effort to compare it 

 with Kodiak ! We ourselves had not 

 fully realized the awful devastation near 

 the volcano until we felt the relief from 

 its contemplation in the comparative ver- 

 dure of the vicinity of the ruined village. 



We were much relieved to find our 

 base camp intact. Although a wolverine 

 had been prowling around, he had evi- 

 dently been suspicious of such fresh signs 

 of man and had not disturbed anything. 



On July 29 we began to look for Mr. 



43 



