The record-union., 1899-09-25

Sea-Part of Cape st. Elias Ru-
mored to Have Disappeared.
PORT TOWNSEND, CWash.), Sept
"a = Concerning the recent earth
quake along the coast of Alaska, Rev
Sheldon Jackson, educational agent for
Alaska, writes as follows from fakutat
under date of September 18th:
THE first shock was experienced on
Sunday, September 81, but being slight
caused no alarm. During the follow
ing week other shocks were felt and
people began to get nervous. On Sep
tember 10th, at 800 a. m, the shocks
became so violent as to cause genuine
apprehension. During the following
five hours there were lifty-two dis
tinct shocks, eliminating at ) p. NJ. IN
a shock so severe that people of Yaku-
tat were hurled violently across their
rooms, or if outside, thrown to the
ground, while pictures fell from the
walls and clocks and dishes crashed
from the shelves and houses rocked and
swayed and whirled, while the mission
bell rang violently in the Skakine
church tower.
gained their feet and attempted to flee
to the hills, only to be again thrown
to the earth, all the while creaking, as
rolling and running they sought safety.
Gaining the hills and looking seaward
they were transfixed with horror as
they saw a great tidal wave apparent
~ a wall of water, thirty feet high,
approaching with the speed of a race
horse that would engulf their village
and sweep away their homes. Before
the shore was reached the earth opened
in the bottom of the harbor and into
this chasm the tidal wave spent it's
force, and around it the sea swirled
like a great maelstrom. This saved
the village from destruction. The tide
would rise ten feet in the space of four
or FIVE minutes and in an equally short
time go down again. These sudden
fluctuations being frequently repeated,
tents were pitched on the hills back
of the village and nearly the whole
population are camping out, fearing
that another tidal wave may come.
From the 10th to the present there have
been frequent shocks, one having oc-
Cured this forenoon
Near Hubbard Glacier, on Olsen
chantment Bay. were encamped three
miners, A. Fleuer w. Rock and J. w
Johnson, and a mile from them, at an
elevation of sixty-four feet above the
sea, Messrs. T. Smith, Cox and son, J.
Falls and d. Stevens. When the heavy
shock of Sunday, the 10th, was ex-
perienced. the Fleur party had rigged
a machine and were marking the os-
citations of the earthquake waves,
when without a moments warning,
they We're thrown violently across the
tent. At the same moment a large
fresh water lake back of their camp
and about forty feet above 1t, was split
open and the waters We're thrown upon
the camp and before the miners could
regain their feet they were Deing swept
out to sea. There almost at the same
instant, they We're met by a tidal wave
which picked them up and not only
washed them ashore, but over a hill
forty feet high. landing them on the
crest of a divide.
"Regaining their feet. they ran along
the crest with the tidal wave boiling
and seething at their feet alongside of
the hill. Afterwards one of the party
found his baggage and clothes, one
side where the wave had left it, Great
spruce forests for miles along the shore
were uprooted, broken into pieces and
massed into great piles with a roar
that was deafening. Large rocks weigh
ing forty tons or more We're rolling
over one another down the mountain
like SO many pebbles.
Hubbard glacier with its two and a
half miles Of sea front, thousands of
Rect thick, extending for miles back
TO the summit of the mountain, broke
from it's mooring and with a grinding
indescribable roar that shook the sur
rounding hills, moved bodily from half
to three-quarters of a mile into the
sea.
Mountains were thrown down, the
sea opened and portions of islands dis
appeared. The earth opened in many
places, after the great shock had
passed and miners began to prepare to
get away A boat with oars was found
a mile up the mountain side where it
had been carried by the wave. With
this another boat was secured that was
floating on the bay.
"In these two small boats they start
ed for Yakutat Bay, forty-fve miles
away. The first night they made camp
on a large moraine, one and a half
miles from the mountain, but an earth
quake during the night loosened a
landslide that covered not only the one
and half miles of plains, but also
theirs tent. Digging out the tent and
provisions they took to their boats. On
the second night they were terrified
by strange noises that issued from the
earth and their tent was blown TO
shreds by the strange winds that
seemed to blow from any point of the
compass. and as clouds were pouring
down torrents of water they fled 10
their boats.
Forcing their boats for twelve miles
through fields of fresh forming ice and
thirteen miles of rough sea, they at
length reached Yakutat Bay in safety.
.umors are afioat that a portion Of
Cape. st. Elias and Khantaak Island
have disappeared in the sea-
-