St. Laurence Island. Arctic Volcanoes-A Land of Lava and Craters-A Ghastly Scene in an Arctic Golgotha-The Work of a Famine. Steamer Corwin, St. Laurence Island, Alaska, July 3, 1881.

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1881
• Subjects: Environmentalist; naturalist; travel; conservation; national parks; John Muir; history; pamphlets; journal articles; speeches; writing; annotation; Arctic; Yukon; Ice Sheet; Alaska; Siberia
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/161; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmb/article/1160/viewcontent/119.pdf

Written, July 2, 1881 Pub. Aug. 15, r f ST. LAURENCE ISLAND. Arctic Volcanoes—A liand of Lava and t'sraters—A C!Siafly cesie in an Arctic Cxolgotiia—The Work of a Jlfauiine. Steamek Corwin, St. Laurence Island, Alaska, July 3,1881. f St. Laurence Island, the largest in Behring Sea, is situated at a distance of about {So} miles off the mouths of the Yukon, and 45 miles from the nearest point on the Coast of Siberia., ', _,_~S3nH ARCTIC VOLCANOES;-j-' —-- It is.,about,100 miles m length from east to west and J5.miles in. average width a dreary, cheerless looking mass of black lava, dotted with volcanoes, without a slngie tree, covered with snow, and rigidly bound in ocean ice for more than half the year. , Inasmuch as it lies broadsidewise to "tlie way pursued by the great ice-sheet that once filled Behring Sea, it is traversed by numerous valleys and ridges and low gaps, some of which have been worn down nearly to the sea-level. Had the emaciation to which it has been subjected been carried on much longer, then, instead ot this one large island, we should have had several smaller ones. Nearly all of the volcanic cones, with which the central portion of the island is in great part covered, are post-glacial in age and present well formed craters but little weathered as yet. Written, July 3, 1881 Pub. Aug. 15 ' ar the northwest end of .the island,which suffered Ieast,'2C0 out of 600. died. At'the one on the southwest end only "fifteen out of about/W survived. ThereiS'a few survivors also at one~oi the villages on the east end of the island. A VILLAGE OF THE DEAD. . After landing our interpreter at Marcus Bay we steered for St. Michael's, and in passing along the north side of this island we stopped an hour or so this morning at one of the smallest of the dead villages. Mr. Nelson went ashore and obtained a lot of skulls and specimens of one sort and another for the Smithsonian Institute. •AN ARCTIC GOLGOTHA. A few miles further on we anchored before a larger village situated about half way between the east and ...