THE BOGOSLOFS
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Of the advent of the first island, in 1796, the following account is given in Kotzebue's narrative of discovery in 1817. The story is that of a Russian trader, Kriukof, who found himself with some native hunters forced to seek refuge from storm on the north end of Umnak Island, the island of the Aleutian chain, nearest the Bogoslofs. It was in May and when the storm cleared on the 8th, Kotzebue tells us:
They saw to the N., several miles from land, a column of smoke ascending from the sea; toward evening they observed under the smoke something black, which arose but a little above the surface of the water. During the night fire ascended into the air near the spot, and sometimes so violent, and to such height, that on their island, which was ten miles distant, everything could be distinctly seen by its light. An earthquake shook their island, and a frightful noise echoed from the mountains in the S. The poor hunters were in deadly anxiety; the rising island threw stones towards them, and they every moment expected to perish. At the rising of the sun the quaking ceased, the fire visibly decreased, and they now plainly saw an island of the form of a pointed black
The Three Bogoslofs, May, 1906.
cap. When Kriukof visited the island of Oomnak, a month afterward, he found the new island, which during that time had continued to emit fire, considerably higher. After that time it threw out less fire, but more smoke: it had increased in height and circumference, and often changed its form. For four years no more smoke was seen, and in the eighth year the hunters resolved to visit it. as they observed that many sea lions resorted to it. The water round the island was found warm, and the island itself so hot in many places that they could not tread on it.
The eruption of 1883, which resulted in the rise of New Bogoslof, seems to have had no eye-witnesses and the exact date of its appearance is unknown. Captain Anderson of the schooner Matthew Turner
