THE VALLEY OF TEN THOUSAND SMOKES 



03 



The next day, July 31, dawned as clear 

 and bright as the former ; but the cloud 

 from Mageik this time drifted off to the 

 northwest, and small clouds were begin- 

 ning to gather on the west side of the 

 valley, so that I knew it was to be the 

 last day of good weather. 



A MUD-FLOW COVERING TEN SQUARE 

 MIEES 80 EEET DEEP 



I had hoped to take a two-days' trip 

 across the pass to see if we could find 

 the source of the clouds which had 

 aroused our suspicions. But remember- 

 ing the bad name given Katmai Pass by 

 Spurr, who states that it was the most 

 difficult pass crossed by his party in their 

 long and adventurous journey in 1898. 

 I had no desire to be caught short of 

 provisions on the wrong side, and so gave 

 up the projected trip and decided to 

 reConnoiter instead. Planning to make 

 an easy day of it, for we were tired after 

 our ascent of Katmai the day before, we 

 climbed around the shoulder of Obser- 

 vation Mountain and descended into the 

 upper valley of Mageik Creek, where we 

 found the largest and most striking ac- 

 cumulation of ash observed anywhere. 



The whole flat, occupying a triangular 

 space five miles on a side, was filled many 

 feet in depth by the ash, which had 

 slumped off the mountain sides. One 

 section we traversed was no less than 125 

 feet thick, and two others 80 feet. 



ASCENT TO KATMAI PASS 



Having stopped a little while to exam-, 

 ine the character of the Mageik mud- 

 flow and to eat our lunch, we made our 

 way forward across the bad lands toward 

 the pass, following now the ridges of the 

 mud-flow, now the bottom of the canyon, 

 which rose in a gentle slope. 



As we ascended the valley past the 

 highest peak of Trident, we came into 

 view of the hollow between it and the 

 next peak, from which I had thought 

 several times I saw clear indications of 

 rising steam. The sun was shining into 

 it brightly, so that I could see it all 

 clearly. There was not the smallest puff 

 of steam anywhere to be seen. We were 

 up now to 2,500 feet and could see a long 



way through the pass, and there was no 

 steam to be seen there either. 



So again I concluded, as I had the day 

 before, that we had seen nothing more 

 than the ordinary clouds which gather so 

 easily around the summits of all high 

 mountains. 



Church, jaded from the continual hard 

 work, had given out and we left him be- 

 hind with the packs, much against his 

 wishes, several hundred feet below, while 

 Folsom and I went forward a little far- 

 ther to see what we could discover. We 

 were both tired from our hard climb the 

 clay before, and traveling transversely 

 across the gullied "bad lands" of the 

 mud-flow, which was necessitated by the 

 condition of the canyon below, was very 

 laborious ; so that I was ready to turn 

 back satisfied with having seen through 

 the pass and, as I believed, having laid 

 another ghost. 



THE FIRST FUMAROEE 



But just as I was about to suggest 

 turning back to Folsom I caught sight of 

 a tiny puff of vapor in the floor of the 

 pass. I rubbed my eyes and looked again. 

 Yes, there it was, a miniature volcano 

 sending up a little jet of steam right in 

 the pass. When I saw this I decided that 

 we must go on to investigate, because the 

 very smallness of this steam jet made it 

 of as much interest as a large volcano. 



For one of the most striking features 

 of the eruption of Katmai — one which 

 was without parallel in other great erup- 

 tions — was the absence of subordinate 

 manifestations of vulcanism outside the 

 main theater of action. I had been con- 

 tinually surprised at the absence of para- 

 sitic cones, fumaroles, mud craters, hot 

 springs, and the like in so great an erup- 

 tion. 



Earlier in the day we had found the 

 stream from the hot springs near the 

 pass, mapped by Spurr ; but aside from 

 that, this fumarole was the first thing of 

 its sort to be observed. When we reached 

 the pass we found its floor all shot 

 through with cracks and small fissures, 

 from which issued half a dozen good- 

 sized jets of steam and perhaps a hun- 

 dred small ones. 



