PLOVER BAY. 43 



gale from the north brought down large quantities of ice. 

 During the night the rudder was broken off by coming in 

 contact with heavy ice. 



The next day the explorers steamed southeast along the 

 edge of the shore ice, keeping a sharp lookout for land. The 

 lead was closing rapidly behind them, and there was dan- 

 ger of being frozen in. Toward night it stopped snowing, 

 and an island was in full view. The ship w;is stopped, and 

 the land party, consisting of Lieutenants Herring and Rey- 

 nolds, one seaman, and two natives, were put ashore. They 

 took with them twenty-five dogs, four sleds, a skin boat, pro- 

 visions for two months, etc. They Avere directed to go as far 

 westward as Cape Yakan, if possible-, and to rejoin the Cor- 

 win at Cape Serdze. 



After seeing the party fairly started, the Corwin was 

 headed south for Plover Bay, Sil>cri;i. The approach to this 

 place, and the appearance of the coast, is thus described :- 

 " In the afternoon of the 12th the sea became smooth and 

 glassy as a mountain lake, and the clouds lifted, gradually 

 unveiling the Siberian coast up to the lops of the mountains. 

 First the black bluffs standing close to the \\ atcr came in 

 sight, then the white slopes, and then one summit after an- 

 other until a continuous range, forty or fifty miles long, could 

 be seen from one point of view, forming a very beautiful 

 landscape. Smooth, dull, dark water in the foreground ; 

 next a broad belt of ice, mostly white like snow, with numer- 

 ous masses of blue and black shade among its jagged, up- 

 lifted blocks. Then a strip of comparatively low shore, 

 black and gray; and then back of that the pure, white moun- 

 tains, with only here and there dark spots, where the rock 

 faces are too steep for snow to lie upon." 



After visiting St. Michael's, Norton Sound, Captain Hoop- 

 er returned to Cape Serdze, and took the land excursionists 

 on board. ' They had been absent twenty-eight days, and had 

 been along the Asiatic coast to a place called Cape Wanker- 

 em, where they found the parties who had boarded the wreck, 

 and obtained from them a number of articles taken from it, 



