OUR GREATEST NATIONAL MONUMENT 



287 



Monument is by no means a devastated 

 wilderness, without interest save for its 

 volcanic wonders. The upper end of 

 Naknek Lake, which lies within the 

 boundary of the park, is as beautiful a 

 body of water as can be found anywhere. 

 Its deep-blue basin lies between the 

 wooded slopes of two mountains whose 

 precipitous summits seem almost to over- 

 hang the water. 



On the one side Mount La Gorce 

 towers 3,000 feet aloft. On the other, 

 Mt. Katolinat rises 5,800 feet in a series 

 of castellated pinnacles formed by the 

 breaking up of a remarkable, massive con- 

 glomerate which weathers out in great 

 sharp battlements (see map, page 222). 



Ivan Petrof, one of the first agents of 

 the American Government to travel these 

 parts, was so impressed with the beauties 

 of Naknek Lake that he inserted in his 

 report a colored picture showing the east 

 arm, or Iliuk Arm, with Mt. Katolinat, 

 the only plate devoted to scenery in an 

 account of travels that reached almost 

 every corner of Alaska. 



On scaling the pinnacled ridge of Ka- 

 tolinat, a feat which appears well-nigh 

 impossible from below, but yet is easily 

 accomplished, one obtains an unsurpass- 

 able view over wide stretches of country. 

 Down the lake one may look on a clear 

 day out across the flat, tundra-covered 

 coastal plain to the waters of Bering Sea, 

 nearly a hundred miles away. Behind 

 him, to the south, stands forth the whole 

 range of snow-capped volcanoes, plainly 

 visible for 120 miles, from Douglas to 

 Peulik, as grand a collection of glacier- 

 covered volcanoes as can be imagined. 



To the east lies the broad, green valley 

 of Savanoski River, giving easy passage 

 behind the range to the shores of Kamis- 

 hak Bay on Cook Inlet. To the north is 

 a great expanse of lake and mountain 

 country heavily covered with forest. 



LAKES GROSVENOR, COVILLE, AND BROOKS 



Lying roughly parallel with Naknek 

 Lake, one descries three other large 

 lakes which were quite unknown to the 

 outside world until news of them was 

 brought back by The Geographic expe- 

 ditions. Two of them, which lie together, 

 joined by a short but swift river, we 

 named for the two men by whose vision 



and support the expeditions were made 

 possible — Gilbert Grosvenor and Fred- 

 erick V. Coville. The third we honored 

 by naming after the dean of Alaskan ex- 

 plorers, Alfred H. Brooks, who likewise 

 has had a large share in helping forward 

 the work of the expeditions (see map, 

 page 222). 



Lake Grosvenor, which is 28 miles 

 long, is even more beautiful than Naknek 

 Lake. Sayre and Miller, who surveyed 

 it, describe it as "the most beautiful spot 

 in Alaska," which is high praise when it 

 is remembered that it comes from men 

 familiar with all the beauties of the cele- 

 brated "Inside Passage." 



On all sides this lake is shut in by high, 

 forest-clad mountains, which give it a 

 charm that will certainly make it a favor- 

 ite place of retreat when the park be- 

 comes a popular resort (see pp. 284, 288) . 

 It may be reached by an easy portage of 

 a mile and a half from near the north- 

 east corner of Naknek Lake, or by as- 

 cending its outlet from the Sabanoski 

 River ; for, although Lake Coville ex- 

 tends out of the mountains into the 

 coastal plain, the system drains back into 

 the head of Iliuk arm. 



Lake Brooks (see page 288) lies on the 

 other side of Naknek Lake, to the west, 

 also separated from it by a high moun- 

 tain. It is smaller than the others, only 

 about 15 miles long, but it is quite large 

 enough to show up on the general maps of 

 Alaska. Like the others, its drainage is 

 reversed ; it empties from its "upper" end 

 by a short river running into a bay on 

 Naknek Lake. 



WONDEREUE LEAPING SALMON 



In the outlet stream from Lake Brooks 

 is a waterfall about six feet high, which 

 is an extremely interesting place to visit 

 when the fish are running. These lakes 

 are among the greatest spawning grounds 

 in the world for the sockeye (red) sal- 

 mon, which is considered the choicest 

 species by the connoisseur of tinned 

 foods. Of late years the runs have been 

 much reduced by the operations of the 

 canneries, but they still run into the lakes 

 in unbelievable numbers. 



The falls in the outlet of Lake Brooks 

 afford an unsurpassed opportunity to ob- 

 serve the continuous procession of sal- 



