THE ALASKAN ERUPTION.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10409, 24 July 1912, Page 2

THE ALASKAN ERUPTION.

*San Eraucisoa, Jana 26 Great destruction of property, an moaaiblv of life is repotted to have occurred in the Aleutian Island R» ? S coast of M etajtlon of the Kasmai volcano. luese Islands afford a rematHablo instano of volcanic activity. rw ® n A”‘ a se them have volcanoes. and tbe«.e ar 4fi craters. Ships passiflK them always see the sky a lorid red at Sighs time. A writer upon the Aleutian Islands says; H ®'®' within the limits of a tnry, have all the known phenomena occurred; the elevation of chain and islands; the 8, “ 6 Bg °* extensive areas of the earth s •- * face, earthquakes, eruptions of lava, ashes and mud, hot springs,, and explosions of steam and sulphuric The Island of Kodiao seems to have snstained the bulk of the damage from the eruption of Katraal. Some 500 residents on the island were taken off by the Government steamer Manning aa.soon as the descent of ashes began. Alter the outbarsfc subsided the people legamed some confidence and left iho ship to return to their homes, Rniu and devastation faced them. In some places the ashes were from 20ft,. to loft, deep, rendering it difficult for the people of the island to make their way about, Nearly all the houses were found to be in ruins, and those that had withstood the attack of the hail of ashes and stones were uninhabitable because of the fine silt which drifted through every crevice. making useless the stores of food and ' clothing The ohlv water the people of Kodiac were able to use was that distilled from sea water by the Manning, all ether supplies having become clogged. It was feared also that the Streams bad become polluted and .poisoned by the volcanic explosion. Reliable information received by the U’ederal Government at Washington was to the effect Shat more than a thousand people had beau rendered homeless. Ocngrsss, on the recommendation of President Taft, voted £20,000 for the relief of the Islanders The wireless telegraph service has been put oat ct oommis. sion by the eruption, and even yet it is donhtful whether or not there has been considerable loss of life on some of the other islands and cn the mainland. Latest accounts state that the ram of ashes, from the flame-spouting crater laid waste the ocantrv 1 within e radius of 100 miles of KaEmai. Mr O, W. Carlson, an Alaska naming man, who has just arrived in San T’rsECisoo from tho scene of the disaster, says that the ship upon which he was traveling was from atom to stem with 'ashes whan 90 miles from the volcano. “When we first sighted the flames shooting up from the crater the day was perfectly clear,” ha stated, “but almost iamadiataly afterwards the air became laden with ash.. When darkpeas came the flashes of lightning that followed each other in quick succession through the night made vivid and different hnad streaks across the sky. None of us suffered auy. ill effects from the dust, The birds, however, seamed to suffer mightily. Millions of them began .to migrate the minute the volcano /started, and, we afterwards heard that all the .’animals that had not escaped had, like the vegetation, been killed off.”