The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-09
CHANGES IN
 OCEAN BEDS
SUGGESTED AS PROBABLE REASON FOR SOME REGENT sHIP-
 WRECKs.
snlamdn Have Sunk, While others Have Appeared in Pacific Waters--VOi- eanie Activity which Has Re-
 suIten In Birth of New
 Burning Mountains.

San Francisco Letter in Baltimore
 Evidence is accomplishing here that the bed of the Pacific ocean has been changed by earth disturbances before during and since the earthquake which shook this city to it's foundations and which caused the destructive fire to burst out simultaneously all over the city Islands have disappeared, while new islands and reefs have been porn
 The chart of the whole Pacific ocean will have to be altered to conform 10 the changes made by the convuisions of the Garth. It Is fully expected that the United States government will un- dertake this work at an early date. Indeed new chart Is urgently de- manded by mariners. Men who are fac miliar with every nook and corner or the Pacific say that there will have to be an immediate resurvey of the ocean in order to obviate future disasters, which have multiplied since San Fran cisco was overwhelmed.
 The transports Sheridan and Thomas went ashore, despite the fact they were tarversing their usual course. The recent accidents overtaking the steam ships Manchuria and Mongolia, which grounded on hidden rocks, point with ont doubt to the birth of new reefs and new islands. naval officer who recently returned here after a cruise of the Northern Pacific declares he saw an island born in daylight.
 Indeed old time navigators are be- coming alarmed and are losing con iadence in their ability to steer ship across the Pacific without encountering the many unknown, hidden and unsus- pected dangers.
 Changes Never to Be Known.
 Only a few of the many changes which have lately taken place in the -F fn 10 Ia months are yet known. Many will never be known. Cmly a missing ship, whose fate can only be suspected. will tell the tale of the new born reef. Robinson Crusoes island Is gone and it's disappearance Is but one of the many tragedies of the earthquakes of the last few months. The recent un- usually violent earthquakes In Califor- nia and Chile are but the eliminating points of a series of minor disturb ances. and farther north there Is evil sence that volcanic activity has not yet entirely ceased in the vicinity of Alaska, where it has been conspicuous in the past
 Within the last few weeks a steam Ing mass of rock has emerged from Boring sea and has risen to the height of 800 feet There are at least two well remembered precedents for the incident. One of the Bogoslov is- lands, which lie about forty miles to. the westward of Unimak, began to de- veIop in 1795, though 1t was not dis tinctly recognized until the following year. It is not unlikely that the oper- ation of lifting 1t up from the shal- low sea extended through a period of several months. The second islet of the Bogoslov group made It's advent in 1883 and at the same time 6 vol cano in Cooks inlet (st Augustine), emitted fire and dust and was sub jected to earthquake shudders.
 The distance between the two cen- tres of disturbance is greater than the interval which separates Martinique and St. Vincent, but, like Pelee and La Souffriere, the new Bogoslov and St. Augustine may have been situated along the same fault" in the earth's crust. The unnamed islet whose dis 155 miles to the northwest of Unalas- aa and may bear the same relation to the volcanoes of that island.
 Terrific Action of the Past.
 The Pacific ocean is almost complete Iy encircled with traces of volcanic Rainier and Hood bear silent witness to that which once occurred in the United States, but which. geologists say, can never occur here again. To study volcanic forces in actual play near the edges of that vast sea, one must go up to Alaska, down to Mex leo. or still farther southward or else cross to Asia Even the Hawaiian fs- lands are of volcanic origin, as, indeed, are most of the Pacific islands. Some scientists have even gone so far as to claim that volcanic action in the Pa ellie was at one time so terrific that. aided by some outside force in the solar system, the moon was cast off from its depths.
 An extensive volcanic outbreak on the island of Hawaii Is predicted by pr. Serene E. Bishop, one of the most eminent authorities on seismic disturb ances. Dr. Bishop believes that the Puma district will be the scene of the outbreak.
 For the last two weeks there have been marked indications about that Bection of Hawaii of internal disturb