Visits To The Valley Of Ten Thousand Smokes

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19106, 29 August 1936, Page 9

Visits To The Valley Of Ten Thousand Smokes

p.XTHER B. It. Hubbard, 5.. T., is known in America as life Glacier Priest. A well-known geologist, and explorer of North .East Alaska, he has made several expeditions to this part, of the, world, and in “Cradle of the Storms” records his experiences. “During the pasl eight; successive years of Alaskan exploration,” .writes Ftither Hubbard, “I. have .made seven trips to Katmai Bay. the entrance to the Valley of Ten Thousand 'Smokes region. The approach has always been made in fear and trembling, for Iliis is the most treacherous place in Alaska, if not in the whole world. Fraught With Peril.

“Each tilin' we have penetrated this desolation we have encountered serious dangers; and were it not for the valuable scientific data, hidden away in its forbidding recesses, nothing would, tempt us to go there. Even the approach from the sea is fraught with peril. “A constantly changing coastline with shifting sand-bars and lagoons that refuse to stay in one place, the necessity of always making a landingin small boats through a pounding surf, and the suddenness with which terrific storms spring up —these factors in the undertaking arouse, tlie utmost respect even in men inured to hardship and danger. It is not difficult to understand, then, why the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes lias never been overrun by tourists!” More Hazardous Than Eefore.

Of his latest attempt, which proved perhaps more hazardous than those which had gone before, Father Hubbard writes: —

“A huge- swell, its crest flocked with foam, was rolling in from the sea. It seemed mountain-high as it impended over our woefully small boat. If it curled and broke Indore it hit us we should, capsize. We realised that we were in the trough between two breakers, and that a young Niagara was ready to drop out from under us.

“With great presence of mind, Ken killed the engine, because lo go too fust meant a nose-dive upset over the breaker in front, and not to go fast enough meant foundering in the curling wave rushing on us from the rear. Only oars are useful in such a situation, and with big Ed. Levin handling them we had at least a fighting chance. “You Live a Long Time Quickly” “In a situation like this you must delicately manoeuvre the boat so as to allow the breaker to crash behind without hitting you, and at the same time to shove von through the foaming jumble of waiter of the wave ahead that has meantime broken. Then you jump overboard in waist-deep water, and hold the boat in the outrushing surge until you can guide it to safety on the sandy bench. It sounds simple, but Tcallv you live a long lime quickly in such a predicament.” The encounters with bears, the adventures which he shared with his exploring party, the description of the dramatic “birth of icebergs,” .make this book of modern daring not only notable, but of service, inasmuch as ilio exploration was made in the interests of science.