THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



127 



^^III 



Photograph by Robert F. Griggs 

 STEAM COMING OUT ALONG THE LENGTH OF A FISSURE 



"The marginal fissures usually stand open like great cracks in the surface, into which 

 one might fall unless careful. If one tosses pebbles into the mouths of these vents they are 

 so buoyed up by the rising gases that they are either immediately spewed out again or sink 

 slowly down through the rising steam like feathers settling to earth" (see page 137). 



In spite of the exposure to which we 

 were daily subjected, there was not a sign 

 of a cold or other illness in the party, but, 

 on the contrary, the constant steaming 

 seemed a good treatment for the rheu- 

 matic pains which usually develop on 

 such expeditions. During our stay in the 

 valley, and for some time after we left, 

 we were as free from such aches as if we 

 had taken the "cure" at a hot spring. 



We came, therefore, to appreciate 

 greatly our steam-heated tent, for we 

 found it always warm and cozy, and 

 there were times when the driving wind 

 and rain outside were so bitter that we 

 could hardly have endured the hardships 

 otherwise. 



THE WEATHER HAS MANY EVIL MOODS IN 

 THE VALLEY 



It would be a mistake, however, to sup- 

 pose that with all our conveniences the 



conditions of our life in the valley were 

 altogether ideal. The Alaska Peninsula 

 is notorious as a storm-breeder, and be- 

 fore the eruption Katmai Pass had a 

 reputation for bad weather not to be 

 matched elsewhere on the American con- 

 tinent. Now, with such enormous quan- 

 tities of hot steam rushing into the air 

 close beside the extensive glaciers and 

 snow-fields of the mountains, the weather 

 is necessarily about as bad as could be. 



From the head of the valley, where 

 conditions made it necessary for us to 

 camp, we could often look out of our door 

 through a storm that threatened to tear 

 the tent from the ground and see bright 

 sunshine and good weather five miles 

 down the valley. 



There was rain almost every dav we 

 were in the valley — not the gentle mist 

 familiar to dwellers of southeastern 

 Alaska, but real rain in big drops, driven 



