DARING FEAT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 327, 14 September 1932, Page 7

DARING FEAT

priest explorer DESCENT INTO CRATER " BY MEANS OF AEROPLANE. VERY NEAR DISASTER. Vancouver, August 3. Fath'er Hubbard, of Santa Clara University, California, known to geographers as ihe "Glacier Priest," has returned from making the first known descent 'into the active crater of Aniakahak, the largest of the hundreds of active craters in Alaska. Mr. Frank Dorbandt, who has achieved many notable rescues by air, including that of the late Captain Burke's party after their leader perished in the Southern Yukon wilderness several weeks after their maehine was forced down, undertook to land his plane in the crater 300 feet below its rim, and Father Hubbard eagerly accepted his offer. The party, which included a cartographer from the University of California, nearly met disaster in returning from their landing-plaee on Surprise Lake, at its bottom. The gas feeder failed, and Mr. Dornbandt was obliged to execute a series of daring vertieal banks against the very walls of the crater, navigating upward thrusts of hot air streams issuing from the vent-holes in the crater's bed. Inside the crater the party melted tin, zinc and copper by cutting a hole 12in. deep in the ash bed. Copper melts at lOOOdeg. centigrade, but went through that process in a few minutes, while nearby blue vapours issued, indicating temperatures still higher. they found a new fumarole, wh'ose appearance Father Hubbard had predicted a year ago. It was silent after the recent eruption, except for gases, which, together with sulphides and rock formations, the party collected for later analysis. Ascent of Mountain. Less spectacular, but a notaole success, was the ascent of Shishalden, the Fujiyama of Alaska, a towering cone of 9388ft, which broke into eruption in February last. The party had to wait three weeks at its base, while the volcano emitted bolts of lava and ashes in a magnificent bombardment. They began the ascent of this peak, which for nearly 100 years has been used as a steering beacon for vessels in the North Pacific, on a day when there was a comp'arative lull in the bombardment. They encountered a howling blizzard during six hours of the ascent. Their hands and feet were bleeding when they emerged from a thick cloud bank on the rim of the crater late in the evening. In an earlier expedition Father Hubbard followed the legendary trail of the Aleut Indians to the Mountain of Fire, Katmai, where he found warm rivers and a warm lake in mid-winter and sub-zero temperature. He nearly perished in this venture, as the boat that was to pick up himself and his : dogs at an agreed spot on the coastj line was delayed 10 days by storms, and the priest was subsisting on blue i mussels when it arrived. Later, he i landed on Boguslov, the disappearing island of the Behring Sea, and took many sampl'es of its composition.