Part 51 (1/2)
Alaska is to-day the centre of the world's volcanic activity, and the mountainous appearances and disappearances that have been recorded in the Aleutian Islands are marvellous and awesome. To these upheavals in the North Pacific and Behring Sea Whidbey's adjectives, ”stupendous,”
”tremendous,” and ”awfully dreadful,” might be appropriately applied.
On July the fourth, 1907, officers of the revenue cutter _McCulloch_ discovered the new peak which they named in honor of their vessel. It was in the vicinity of the famous volcano of Joanna Bogoslova, or Saint John the Theologian.
In 1796 the natives of Unalaska and the adjoining islands for many miles were startled by violent reports, like continued cannonading, followed by frightful tremblings of the earth upon which they stood.
A dense volume of smoke, ashes, and gas descended upon them in a kind of cloud, and shut everything from their view. They were thus enveloped and cannonaded for about ten days, when the atmosphere gradually cleared and they observed a bright light s.h.i.+ning upon the sea from thirty to forty miles north of Unalaska. The brave ones of the island went forth in bidarkas and discovered that a small island had risen from the sea to a height of one hundred feet and that it was still rising.
This was the main peak of the Bogosloff group, and it continued to grow until 1825, when it reached a height of about three hundred feet and cooled sufficiently for Russians to land upon it for the first time. The heat was still so intense, however, and the danger from running lava so great, that they soon withdrew to their boats.
In the early eighties, after similar disturbances, another peak arose near the first and joined to it by a low isthmus, upon which stood a rock seventy feet in height, which was named s.h.i.+p-Rock. In 1891 the isthmus sank out of sight in the sea, and a new peak arose.
Since then no important changes have occurred. The peaks themselves remained too hot and dangerous for examination; but the short voyage out from Unalaska has been a favorite one for tourists who were able to land upon the lower rocks and spend a day gathering specimens and studying the sea-lions that doze in polygamous herds in the warmth, and the shrieking murres that nest in the cliffs and cover them like a tremulous gray-white cloud.
Every inch of s.p.a.ce on these cliffs seems to be taken by these birds for the creation of life. On every tiniest shelf they perch upright, black-backed and white-bellied, brooding their eggs--although these hot and steamy cliffs are sufficient incubators to bring forth life out of every egg deposited upon them. When the murres are suddenly disturbed, their eggs slip from their hold and plunge down the cliffs, splattering them with the yellow of their broken yolks.
The last week in July, 1907, I pa.s.sed close to the Bogosloff Islands, which had grown to the importance of four peaks. Three days later a violent earthquake occurred in this vicinity. Once more dense clouds of smoke descended upon Unalaska and the adjoining islands, and ashes poured upon the sea and land, as far north as Nome, covering the decks of pa.s.sing steamers to a depth of several inches, and affecting sailors so powerfully that they could only stay on deck for a few moments at a time.
On September the first, the captain and men of the whaler _Herman_, pa.s.sing the Bogosloff group, beheld a sight to observe which I would cheerfully have yielded several years of life. They saw the two-months-old McCulloch peak burn itself down into the sea, with vast columns of steam ascending miles into the air above it, and the waters boiling madly on all sides. It went down, foot by foot, and the men stood spellbound, watching it disappear. For miles around the sea was violently agitated and was mixed with volcanic ash, which also covered the decks, and at intervals steam poured up unexpectedly out of the ocean.
As soon as possible the revenue cutter _Buffalo_ went to the wonderful volcanic group, and it was found that their whole appearance was changed.
There were three peaks where four had been; but whereas they had formerly been separate and distinct islands, they were now connected and formed one island.
This island is two and a half miles long. Perry Peak, which arose in 1906, had increased in height; and there was a crater-like depression on its south side, around which the waters were continually throwing off vast clouds of steam and smoke. Captain Pond reported that rocks as large as a house were constantly rolling down from Perry Peak, and that the whole scene was one of wonderful interest. To his surprise, the colony of sea-lions, which must have been frightened away, had returned, and seemed to be enjoying the steamy heat on the rocks of the main and oldest peak of the group.
The disappearance of McCulloch peak was accompanied by earthquake shocks as far to eastward as Sitka. Makus.h.i.+n, the great volcano of Unalaska, and others, smoked violently, and ashes fell over the Aleutian Islands and the mainland. At the same time uncharted rocks began to make their appearance all along the coast, to the grave danger of navigation.
CHAPTER x.x.xIX
In the heart of Behring Sea, about two hundred miles north of Unalaska, lie two tiny cloud and mist haunted and wind-racked islands which are the great slaughter-grounds of Alaska. Here, for a hundred and twenty years, during the short seal season each year, men have literally waded through the b.l.o.o.d.y gore of the helpless animals, which they have clubbed to death by thousands that women may be handsomely clothed.
The surviving members of Vitus Behring's ill-starred expedition carried back with them a large number of skins of the valuable sea-otter. From that date--1742--until about 1770 the promyshleniki engaged in such an unresting slaughter of the otter that it was almost exterminated.
In desperation, they turned, then, to the chase of the fur-seal, and for years sought in vain for the rumored breeding-grounds of this pelagic animal. The islands of St. Paul and St. George were finally discovered in 1786, by Gera.s.sim Pribyloff, who heard the seals barking and roaring through the heavy fogs, and, sailing cautiously on, surprised them as they lay in polygamous groups by the million upon the rocky sh.o.r.es.
Pribyloff was the son of a sailor who had accompanied Behring on the _St. Peter_. He modestly named his priceless discovery ”Subov,” for the captain and part owner of the trading a.s.sociation for which he worked.
He himself was not engaged in sealing, but was simply the first mate of the sloop _St. George_. The Russians, however, renamed the islands for their discoverer; and happily the name has endured.
St. George Island is ten miles in length by from two to four in width.
It is higher than the larger St. Paul, which lies twenty-seven miles farther north, and rises more abruptly from the water.
The temperature of these islands is not low, rarely falling to zero; but the wind blows at so great velocity that frequently for days at a time the natives can only go from one place to another by crawling upon their hands and knees.
To conserve the sealing industry, after the purchase of Alaska, the exclusive privilege of killing seals on these islands was granted to the Alaska Commercial Company for a period of twenty years. When this lease expired in 1890, a new one was made out for a like period to the North American Commercial Company, which still holds possession. The company has agents on both islands, and the government maintains an agent and his a.s.sistant on St. Paul Island, and an a.s.sistant on St. George, to enforce the terms of the concession.