Expedition 1907
[Uncorrected from the original manuscript]
We collected specimens and made notes on geology, magnetism, topography, weather, photography, ethnology, plants, insects, birds, ores, shipping, volcanoes and navigation—materials for years of laboratory study. The journal of the expedition, thirty-seven pages long with photographs, was published by the Technology Review.
Like every such volcano expedition, we were hampered by the necessity of using a sailing vessel, by bad weather, by rain which interfered with photography, by long spells on the open sea in fog, and by inaccessible craters amid the ice of mountain tops. From the administrative viewpoint, two things stood out: the need for an amphibian boat, independent of harbors, and the need for a land station more or less permanent, wherefrom an amphibian boat could operate to reach and land on determinate beaches. A permanent station could work on specimens in bad weather. These discoveries determined the policy that was to eventuate in the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, to the building of amphibian boats, and to five other Aleutian journeys by 1932.
I might describe sliding down the slippery grass of Unalaska, on the steep slopes peculiar to the Aleutians; exploring ice craters on top of Makushin in Unalaska; or getting storm bound for five days trying to reach Atka’s Korovinski Volcano on foot. But these tales have been published elsewhere.
The most exciting of the Aleutian volcanoes is Bogoslof, a peak submerged north of Umnak, with its crater, a line of erupting crags, just at sea level. We had good luck with weather and landed on Bogoslof in the forenoon of August 7, 1907. Hundreds of sea lions, bellowing close to the dories, would pop up and stare at us and then plunge frantically beneath the waves. On the beach we found one bull asleep, but he awoke and awkwardly floundered to the sea. The islet was then four peaks with sand flats between, the central one a steaming mass of lava protuberances shaped like potatoes. Next to it was a half cone broken in two, with a horned spine like a shark fin; Pelée all over again. It was also similar to New Zealand’s White Island. At the two ends of the island were older, peaked lava rocks. The active heap was 450 feet high with bright yellow coatings, and a ring pool of hot salt water around it, yellow with iron-stained mud. The rocky cliffs were covered with thousands of murres, their chicks, and eggs; and the birds darkened the sky in flight. The stench from offal and rotten eggs was intense.
The sea was full of fish, the beaches were full of sea lions, the hot lava and air were full of birds. Thus life and deadly volcanism lived together. The active rock was refractory basalt, semisolid, crusting and breaking into blocks as it rose from a submerged crater.
On September 1 after we left, the crater exploded, throwing sand and dust a distance of 100 miles to the east. The middle heap was engulfed, leaving only a lagoon; and the remaining peaks were shrouded in a heavy mantle of debris. Such a history of building and bursting and spreading out as a shoal has gone on for more than 111 years. Bogoslof is the peak of a submarine Pelée, several thousand feet above sea bottom. It is always active, the index volcano of the Aleutians.
It was about this time that the need for observatories began to be recognized. Something new and of grave menace had come into geology, terrible steam blasts capable of shooting out horizontally and explosively. And even as I write in 1952 these have been taking human lives at Mount Lamington in Papua and Mount Hibokhibok on Camiguin Island of the Philippines.
At Vesuvius, under Palmieri, an observatory had been established about 1859. The director was interested in meteorology as affected by Vesuvius, and annual reports were published irregularly. Successive directors became interested in making instruments for volcano science and Mercalli, the director in 1907, published a book in Italian on the active volcanoes of the world. When I went to Mount Pelée I was mindful of the venture at Vesuvius; and Professor Lacroix of Paris established artillery officers near St. Pierre ruins after the disaster, to watch and report as a volcano observatory. They furnished details and photographs of the many eruptions and the growth of the lava dome and spine. Doctors Hovey, Flett, Anderson, Lacroix, and Heilprin returned to Mount Pelée and added much to the observational and photographic record, and Dr. Stübel published a special book inspired by critical study of the Caribbees, in comparison with Andean volcanoes.