THE TEX THOUSAND SMOKES MONUMENT 



361 



a scale of great magnitude, arousing emo- 

 tions of wonder at the inspiring specta- 

 cles, thus affording inspiration to patri- 

 otism and to the study of Nature. 



Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wn,- 

 sox, President of the United States of 

 America, by virtue of the power and au- 

 thority in me vested by section two of 

 the Act of Congress entitled "An Act 

 for the Preservation of American An- 

 tiquities," approved June 8. 1906 (34 

 Stat., 225), do proclaim that there are 

 hereby reserved from all forms of ap- 

 propriation under the public-land laws. 

 and set apart as the Katmai National 

 Monument, certain lands particularly de- 

 scribed as follows, to wit. beginning at 

 the United States Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey triangulation station, latitude 57 ° 

 ^2' 17.040", longitude 155° 05' 20.331", 

 established in 1908 about one-half west 

 of Katmai Bay on top of a hundred-foot 

 bluff on the Alaska Peninsula, named Cape 

 Kubugakli ; thence north 40° 00" west 

 to the intersection with longitude 155° 

 40' : thence due north to the intersection 

 with latitude 58 35'; thence due east to 

 the intersection with a line bearing north 

 6o c 00' west from Cape Gull ; thence 

 south following said line to the shore- 

 line at Cape Gull : thence west following 

 the shoreline of the coast to a point di- 

 rectly below the triangulation station, 

 situated on the bluff at Cape Kubugakli ; 

 thence up the bluff to the said station, the 

 point of beginning: embracing approxi- 

 mately 1.700 square miles of land, as 

 shown upon the diagram hereto attached 

 and made a part of this proclamation. 



Warning is hereby given to all unau- 

 thorized persons not to appropriate or 

 injure any natural feature of this monu- 

 ment or to occupy, exploit, settle, or lo- 

 cate upon any of the lands reserved by 

 this proclamation. 



The Director of the National Park 

 Sendee, under the direction of the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior, shall have the super- 

 vision, management, and control of this 

 monument, as provided in the Act of 

 Congress entitled "An Act to Establish 

 a National Park Service, and for other 

 purposes." approved August 2;. 191 6 

 (39 Stat.. 535V 



Ix Y\ itxess W hereof. I have hereunto 

 set my hand and caused the seal of the 

 United States to be affixed. 



Done in the District of Columbia this 

 twenty- fourth day of September in the 

 year of our Lord one thousand nine 

 hundred and eighteen, and of the Inde- 

 pendence of the United States of Amer- 

 ica the one hundred and forty-third. 



Woodrow Wilson. 



By the President : 

 Robert Lansing, Secretary of State. 



PREEMINENT AMONG THE WONDER; 

 THE WORLD 



OE 



All subsequent study and comparison 

 confirms and deepens the opinion ex- 

 pressed in the accounts of the discovery 

 of the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, 

 that this and the associated volcanic phe- 

 nomena stand preeminent among the 

 wonders of the world. Search through 

 the literature of volcanoes, and conver- 

 sation with travelers who have visited all 

 the show places of the earth, make it 

 quite certain that nowhere else in the 

 present-day world is there anything at all 

 similar to this supreme wonder. 



The unique character of the Ten Thou- 

 sand Smokes is generally recognized by 

 those who have given the matter con- 

 sideration. But how long will they last? 

 Are the vents really the chimneys by 

 which exit is found for the emanations 

 from a vast mass of molten magma that, 

 having risen from the depths, has all but 

 burst through the surface bodily? Or, 

 are they due merely to the vaporiz-ation 

 of surface water by the heated products 

 of the great eruption? Are they likely 

 to endure for a long time, or will they 

 probably dwindle rapidly, as nature set- 

 tles down again after the great cataclysm 

 of 1912? 



So far as the observations of a single 

 year could do so. the studies of 191 7 in- 

 dicated that they were real volcanoes, 

 whose probable life was to be measured 

 by decades rather than by days or months. 

 But no single season's work could settle 

 these questions. It was considered highly 

 important that a watch be kept on devel- 

 opments the succeeding year. Notwith- 

 standing the absorption of every one's 

 energies in the prosecution of the war 

 last summer, it was considered advisable, 

 therefore, to keep some record of their 

 condition. Two members of the expedi- 

 tion of 1917, Jasper D. Sayre and Paul R. 



