444 VOYAGE TO THE 



C xn P " description and drawings from the remains will be 

 v- ^^** / found in the Appendix. Associating these two 

 1826. discoveries, I bestowed the name of Elephant upon 

 the point, to mark its vicinity to the place where the 

 fossils were found ; and upon the river that of Buck- 

 land, in compliment to Dr. Buckland, the professor 

 of geology at Oxford, to whom I am much indebted 

 for the above mentioned description of the fossils, 

 and for the arrangement of the geological memo- 

 randa attached to this work. 



The cliff in which these fossils appear to have 

 been imbedded is part of the range in which the ice 

 formation was seen in July. During our absence 

 (a space of five weeks) we found that the edge of the 

 cliff in one place had broken away four feet, and in 

 another two feet and a half, and a further portion of 

 it was on the eve of being precipitated upon the 

 beach. In some places where the icy shields had 

 adhered to the cliff nothing now remained, and 

 frozen earth formed the front of the cliff. By cut- 

 ting through those parts of the ice which were still 

 attached, the mud in a frozen state presented itself 

 as before, and confirmed our previous opinion of the 

 nature of the cliff. Without putting it to this test, 

 appearances might well have led to the conclusion 

 come to by Kotzebue and M. Escholtz ; more espe- 

 cially if it happened to be visited early in the sum- 

 mer, and in a season less favourable than that in 

 which we viewed it. The earth, which is fast fall- 

 ing away from the cliffs — not in this place only, but 

 in all parts of the bay — is carried away by the tide ; 

 and throughout the summer there must be a ten- 

 dency to diminish the depth of the water, which at 

 no very distant period will probably leave it naviga- 



