yo Smithsonian Exploration in Alaska in 1904 



appear to be breaking away, and contributing daily to diminish the 

 depth of water in the bay. 



" Such is the general conformation of this line of coast. That 

 particular formation, which, when first discovered by Captain Kotze- 

 bue, excited so much curiosity, and bore so near a resemblance to. an 

 iceberg, as to deceive himself and his officers, when they approached 

 the spot to examine it, remains to be described, as we rowed along 

 the shore, the shining surface of small portions of the cliffs attracted 

 our attention and directed us where to search for this curious phe- 

 nomenon, which we should otherwise have had difficulty in finding, 

 notwithstanding its locality had been particularly described ; for so 

 large a portion of the ice-cliff has thawed since it was visited by 

 Captain Kotzebue and his naturalists, that only a few insignificant 

 patches of the frozen surface now remain. The largest of these, 

 situated about a mile to the westward of Elephant Point, was par- 

 ticularly examined^ by Mr. Collie, who on cutting through the ice in a 

 horizontal direction, found that it formed only a casing to the cliff, 

 which was composed of mud and gravel in a frozen state. On re- 

 moving the earth above, it was also evident, by a decided line of 

 separation between the ice and the cliff, that the Russians had been 

 deceived by appearances. By cutting into the upper surface of the 

 cliff three feet from the edge, frozen earth, similar to that which 

 formed the face of the cliff, was found at eleven inches depth ; and 

 four yards further back the same substance occurred at twenty-two 

 inches depth. 



" This glacial facing we afterwards noticed in several parts of the 

 sound; and it appears to me to be occasioned either by the snow 

 being banked up against the cliff or collected in its hollows in the 

 winter, and converted into ice in the summer by partial thawings 

 and freezings — or by the constant flow of water during the summer 

 over the edges of the cliff's, on which the sun's rays operate less 

 forcibly than on other parts, in consequence of their aspect. The 

 streams thus become converted into ice, either while trickling down 

 the still frozen surface of the cliffs, or after [p. 259] they reach the 

 earth at their base, in which case the ice rises like a stalagmite, and 

 in time reaches the surface. But before this is completed, the upper 

 soil, loosened by the thaw, is itself projected over the cliff, and falls 

 in a heap below, whence it is ultimately carried away by the tide. 

 We visited this spot a month later in the season, and found a con- 

 siderable alteration in its appearance, manifesting more clearly than 

 before the deception under which Kotzebue laboured." 



July 30, 1826, Chapter XI, page 260. " On the 30th of July we 



