PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 449 



The country here slopes gradually from some hills to c ^f, p ' 

 the beach, and is so well overgrown that we could not *— ~^~ 

 examine its substrata ; but they do not in outward i£. 

 formation exhibit any indication of volcanic agency. 



Further on we landed in a small bay formed by a 

 narrow wall of volcanic stones — some wholly above 

 water, others only slightly immersed. These reefs 

 were opposite a low mud cliff, similar in its nature 

 to those in which the fossils were found in Escholtz 

 Bay ; and though they did not furnish any bones, 

 yet it is remarkable that a piece of a tusk was picked 

 up on the beach near them. It must, however, be 

 observed that its edges were rounded off by the surf, 

 to which it had been a long time exposed ; and it 

 might have been either washed up from some 

 other place, or have been left on the beach by the 

 natives. 



To the westward of these rocky projections the 

 coast is low, swampy, and intersected by lakes and 

 rivers. The rounded hills which thus far bound the 

 horizon of the sound to the southward here branch 

 off inland, and a distant range of a totally different 

 character rises over the vast plain that extends to 

 Cape Espenburg, and forms the whole of the western 

 side of the sound. In the angle which it makes, 

 we discovered a river, which, we were informed by 

 a few natives who came off to us in a miserable bai- 

 dar, with dogs looking as unhappy as themselves, 

 extended inland five days' journey for their baidars; 

 but on examination it proved so shallow at the 

 mouth, that even the gig could not enter it. A 

 few miles to the north-westward of this river, we 

 arrived off the inlet which Captain Kotzebue medi- 

 tated to explore in baidars, and was very sanguine 



vol. i. 2 G 



