176 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
moderately severe storms in safety. A secondary indentation is found between Karluk 
Head and the mouth of Karluk River. This is a little cove with a fine gravelly beach 
and is frequently resorted to for seining salmon. The Karluk River empties into the 
bay at the point of the spit through a narrow and comparatively shallow mouth. 
KARLUK SPIT. 
(Plates Liv and lxxxi.) 
The bay is separated from the Karluk River Valley by a low spit, which is about 
three-fourths of a mile long, about 100 yards wide at its extremity at ordinary high 
tides, and scarcely more than 30 yards wide at its head ; its average width is about 
()0 yards. Its ocean beach has already been described. The river beach in its lower 
half is lined with moderately large bowlders, while the upper half contains finer gravel 
and deposits of river ooze. The elevation is so slight that in severe storms the sea 
washes over it into the river, flooding some of the buildings of the canning companies. 
There is a thin soil along the ridge of the spit which is utilized by some of the work- 
men for small vegetable gardens. The upper end of the spit not occupied by buildings 
is covered with a heavy growth of grass and weeds. Mr. Booth describes the forma- 
tion of this little peninsula in the following words : “The spit is formed of loose gran- 
ite gravel, washed into its present position by storms and tides from the bases of the 
high granite cliffs which make the coast-line of this part of Kadiak Island so promi- 
nent. These cliffs are constantly crumbling under the combined action of air, water, 
and frost, and the talus thus formed is coustautly being added to the spit, gradually 
making it wider and longer. As the strongest prevailing gales come from the north- 
east, the debris is carried southwest to the further end of the spit, which accounts for 
the present position of the river moutli and the difference in width of the spit. 
“ There is hardly any doubt that the present lagoon was at one time the estuary of 
the river, then a far more powerful stream than at present and capable of carrying 
out to sea the debris carried across its mouth. As the river dwindled in size and 
volume the spit gradually encroached across its mouth, crowding it southwest along 
the base of the cliff until its mouth reached the present location. 
“ The granite cliffs, whose fragments have formed the spit, extend from Karluk 
Head, a bold headland about one-half mile southwest of the river mouth to the south- 
western shore of Hyak Bay, and rise almost perpendicularly to a height of from 1,500 
to 2,000 feet. The first rise of the peak, called on the Coast Survey [charts] Cape 
Karluk, I determined by transit observation to be about 1,600 feet high. 
“ This iieculiar shape of mouth is not confined to the Karluk River alone. The 
Sturgeon and Little Rivers, distant respectively 4 miles southwest and about 30 miles 
northeast of Karluk, have similarly shaped mouths, and in each can be seen the out- 
lines of their old estuaries. 
“ The ordinary tides on the beach at Karluk range from 12 to 18 feet, and in the 
river from 3 to 5 feet. The tide reaches up the lagoon or old estuary shown on the 
accompanying charts as far as the lower rapids, where the river and lagoon unite. 
The river here is about 300 feet wide, the whole width of its bed beiug filled with 
bowlders ; in summer the water is too shallow for a bidarka to pass. The velocity of 
the current here is about If miles per hour,” 
