68 Smithsonian Exploration in Alaska in 1904 



present this impartially it appears necessary even if charged with 

 much repetition and tediousness to reprint in accessible form all of 

 the several descriptions of this locality, from that by its discoverer, 

 Kotzebue, to the oft repeated and much quoted account by Dall, etc. 

 Besides it seems desirable at this opportunity to bring together in 

 chronological order all the scattered observations about this ice on 

 the shores of Eschscholtz Bay that they may be available as a handy 

 reference to future observers who may have the opportunity of 

 visiting the locality and studying the facts. 



[A Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea and Beering's Straits in 

 THE Years 1815-18. By Otto von Kotzebue. English translation in 3 vols. 

 8vo. London, 1821, Volume I.] 



On the 7th of August, 18 16, speaking of the native inhabitants 

 about Eschscholtz Bay he says, page 218: " They perhaps also keep 

 reindeer ; as we saw many horns of these useful animals lying on the 

 shore." 



August 8, 1816. page 219. " We had passed a very unpleasant 

 night, for it was stormy and rainy ; and as the morning promised no 

 better weather, I resolved to sail back to the ship ; but scarcely had 

 we gone half way, when we were overtaken by a violent storm from 

 the southeast ; the long-boat drew much water, and w^e were obliged 

 to return to the landing-place we had just quitted. Being wet 

 through, I had a fire madcof driftwood, which we found everywhere 

 in plenty ; we dried our clothes, and prepared a refreshing soup. It 

 seemed as if fortune had sent this storm, to enable us to make a very 

 remarkable discovery, which we owe to Dr. Eschscholtz. We had 

 climbed much about during our stay, without discovering that we 

 were on real ice-bergs. The doctor, who had extended his excur- 

 sions, found part of the bank broken down, and saw, to his astonish- 

 ment, that the interior of the mountain, consisted of pure ice. At 

 this news, we all went, provided with shovels and crows, to examine 

 this phenomenon more closel}-, and soon arrived at a place where the 

 bank rises almost perpendicularly out of the sea, to the height of a 

 hundred feet ; and then runs ofif, rising still higher. We saw masses 

 of the purest ice, of the height of a hundred feet, which are under a 

 cover of moss and grass ; and could not have been produced, but by 

 some terrible revolution. The place which, by some accident, had 

 fallen in, and is now exposed to the sun and air [p. 220], melts away, 

 and a good deal of water flows into the sea. An indisputable proof 

 that what we saw was real ice, is the quantity of mammoths' teeth 

 and bones, which were exposed to view by the melting, and among 



