OUR GREATEST NATIONAL MONUMENT 



225 



low places. Above the 

 timber - line there was 

 still abundant tundra 

 vegetation, with occa- 

 sional clumps of bushes 

 close up under the vol- 

 canoes themselves. 



Except for the ancient 

 lava flows poured out at 

 the head of the valley 

 from these old volcanoes 

 in prehistoric times, the 

 rocks of the valley are 

 not volcanic, nor even 

 igneous. They consist 

 rather of horizontal sedi- 

 mentary strata, of sand- 

 stone and shale, full of 

 fossils of marine shell- 

 fish of Jurassic age. 



While a geologist 

 might have predicted an 

 early eruption from Kat- 

 mai or from Mageik, the 

 possibility of such a cata- 

 clysm as broke loose in 

 the floor of the valley 

 would never have oc- 

 curred to him. 



STORY OF THE ONLY 

 EYEWITNESS 



Although the pass was 

 frequently crossed by 

 travelers, there was no 

 permanent settlement in 

 the valley. About half- 

 way up, however, was a 

 group of native huts 

 known by the name of 

 Ukak. These seem to 

 have constituted a sort 

 of hunting lodge, used by the natives of 

 the village of Savonoski, for the valley 

 was formerly the abode of abundant 

 herds of caribou, as well as moose, bear, 

 and fur-bearing animals. 



Warned by preliminary disturbances, 

 of whose character no clear account is 

 given, beyond the statement that there 

 were frequent earthquakes, "American 

 Pete," chief of the Savonoski natives, 

 had gone to Ukak to remove his gear and 

 was on the trail when the eruption oc- 

 curred. He was thus the only human 

 being who had any opportunity of ob- 

 serving what happened in the valley. 



Photograph by Frank I. Jones 



KNIFE CREEK CANYON 



The streams have cut most curious sinuous canyons into the 

 stiffened mass of the sand-flow. Although in places these can- 

 yons are a hundred feet deep, they do not cut through the flow 

 to the soil beneath, except in the lower part of the valley. 



This fact gives an unusual interest to 

 his story, since, meager as it is, it consti- 

 tutes the only scrap of direct evidence 

 concerning the beginning of the Ten 

 Thousand Smokes that can ever be se- 

 cured. He was interviewed by Mr. P. R. 

 Hagelbarger, of the 1918 Expedition. At 

 that time he was an old man, in the last 

 stages of tuberculosis, and it was difficult 

 to get him to talk freely. 



"The Katmai Mountain blow up with 

 lots of fire, and fire come down trail from 

 Katmai with lots of smoke," he said. 

 "Me go fast Sabanoski. Everybody get in 

 bidarka [skin boat]. Helluva job! We 



