Ice-beds on Eschscholtz Bay 8i 



coast is low, there is a long succession of clififs of miul, in the follow- 

 ing order: i. Schischmareff Inlet. 2. Bay of Good Hope, on the 

 south of Kotzebue Sound. 3. Spafarief Bay. at the southeast ex- 

 tremity of Kotzebue's Sound. 4. Elephant Point, in Eschscholtz 

 Bay. 5. At the mouth of the Buckland River, at the head of Esch- 

 scholtz r)ay. 6. The north coast of Eschscholtz Bay. 7. Cape 

 Blossom. 8. Point Hope. 9. From Cape Beaufort to twenty miles 

 east of Icy Cape. 10. Lunar Station, near lat. 71°. At the base 

 of the mud cliff, fifteen feet high, in the Bay of Good Hope, a 

 small piece of a tusk of an elephant was found upon the shore. At 

 Shallow Inlet, the mud cliff' was fifteen feet high, without any facings 

 of ice, or appearance of bones ; yet there was the same smell at low 

 water as in the cliffs near Elephant Point, that abound so much in 

 bones. At Icy Cape, the cliff's of mud behind the islands were about 

 twenty feet high, but were not examined. Patches of pure ice were 

 observed hanging on the mud cliff's in many places along this coast, 

 but only where there was peat at the top ; hence it may be inferred, 

 that the ice, in such cases, is formed by water oozing from the peat. 

 At High Cape, near Hotham Inlet, is a cliff of mud, a hundred feet 

 high, covered at the top with peat, and having patches of ice upon 

 its surface ; but no bones were found here. In those parts of the 

 coast where the cliff's are rocky there were no facings of ice. 



'■ Having thus far stated the evidence we possess respecting the 

 facts connected with the discovery of these bones in Eschscholtz 

 Bay, I will proceed to offer a few remarks in illustration and expla- 

 nation of them, and to consider how far they tend [604] to throw 

 light on the curious and perplexing question, as to what was the 

 climate of this portion of the world at the time when it was inhabited 

 by animals now so foreign to it as the elephant and rhinoceros, and 

 as to the manner in which, not only their teeth and tusks and dis- 

 located portions of their skeletons, but in some remarkable instances, 

 the entire carcasses of these beasts, wnth their flesh and skin still 

 perfect, became entombed in ice, or in frozen mud and gravel, over 

 such extensive and distant regions of the northern hemisphere. 



" The bones from Eschscholtz Bay, like most of those we find in 

 diluvial deposits, are no way mineralized : they are much altered 

 in colour, being almost black, and are to a certain degree decomposed 

 and weakened ; yet they retain so much animal matter, that not only 

 a strong odour like that of burnt horn is emitted from theni on the 

 application of heated iron, but a musty and slightly ammoniacal 

 smell is perceptible on gently rubbing their surface. 



" It must not, however, be inferred that this high state of preser- 



