14 BOTANY OE THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. HERALD. 
eitlicr animal or vegetable life ; "wliilc others, taking a more favourable view, look upon the 
baiTier as masses hanging to a circle of islands, and try to establish the existence of a 
Polynia— an open sea around the Pole, ■s\ith a comparatively mild chmate and its attributes. 
The coast of Western EskimaiLx-land, after describing Norton Sound, projects into a 
peninsula, which, in conjunction mth the eastern shores of Asia, forms Behring's Strait. The 
distance between the continents in these parts is so small that, in passing through the strait, 
both Asia and America are visible at the same tihie,— a spectacle only equalled in grandeur 
by that of beholding the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans from the mountains of Central America. 
From the peninsula the coast makes a deep curve, forming Kotzebuc Sound, and then 
stretching towards the north-west, it again projects at Cape Lisbume, in latitude 68° 52' 6" 
north. Cape Lisbume is composed of two promontories, the south-eastern of which rises to 
the height of about 1000 feet. Imaginative minds have suggested that at one time Asia 
and America were connected. Without indulging in similar speculations, it is impossible to 
look at a map without being struck with the parallel direction in which the shores of the two 
tontincnts are running, and, if pushed together, how nicely East Cape woidd fit into Kotze- 
bue Sound, and Cape Tchaplin join to Cape Prince of Wales. From Cape Lisburne to 
Point Baffrow the land is almost a continued flat, and the coast, falling back to the north-east, 
forms Icy Cape, Wainwright Inlet, and ultunately Point Barrow, the northern extremity of 
Western America. 
A few islands may be said to belong to this region. Off Norton Sound there are Egg, 
Sledge, and Besborough Islands ; a short distance below Belu-ing's Strait, St. Lawrence ; off 
Port Clarence, King's Island ; and between Cape Prince of Wales and the eastern promontory 
of Asia, the Diomedes, three islands most appropriately named, for the albatross, after ventur- 
ing from the northern confine of the tropic of Cancer, stops short at the Diomedes, making 
the very group bearing its name the northern limit to which its migrations extend. In Kot- 
zebue Sound lies Chamisso Island, an everlasthig monument to the memory of an illustrious 
poet and natiualist, towards Point Barrow the Sea-horses, and almost midway between Asia 
and America, about latitude 71° north. Herald and Plover Islands, portion of a group as yet 
imperfectly explored. 
The country has many rivers, but none of any great size, and, owing to the flatness of the 
region, all are sluggish. The Koeakpack, one of the largest, takes its rise in the north, and 
running in a southerly direction, empties itself into Norton Soimd. The Tokshuk, Kowala, 
and Buckland are smaller streams encumbered with shallows, and nmning north into Kot- 
zebuc Sound. The Noatak and AVainwright rim in a southerly direction, and are, like the 
latter, unnavigable any distance even for large boats. 
The soil is always frozen, and merely thaws dm-ing the summer a few feet below the 
surface. But the thawing is by no means uniform. In peat it extends not deeper than two 
feet, while in other formations, especially in sand or gravel, the ground is free from frost to 
the depth of nearly a fathom, showing that sand is a better conductor of heat than peat or 
