Ice-beds on Eschscholtz Bay 91 



the preservation of the carcass in ice : had it been gradual, it might 

 have caused the extinction of the mammoth in the polar regions, 

 but would afford no reason for its equal extirpation in lower lati- 

 tudes ; but if sudden and violent, and attended by a general inunda- 

 tion, the temperature preceding this catastrophe may have been 

 warm, and that immediately succeeding it intensely cold ; and the 

 cause producing this change of climate may also have produced an 

 inundation, sufficient to destroy and bury in its ruins the animal? 

 which then inhabited the surface of the earth." 



[Zoology of Captain Beechey's Voyage to the Pacific and Beering's 

 Strait. London, 1839. Geology by Buckland from the notes of Lieutenant 

 Belcher and Mr. Collie, pp. 159-180. Plate I is a plan of Eschscholtz Bay 

 showing the various geological formations in colors, by Lieutenant Belcher.] 



Kotzebue Sound [p. 169]. — "The bounding shores of Kotzebue 

 Sound for the most part rise by perpendicular cliffs, either directly 

 from the waters or from a shelving beach. In some places the 

 land is remarkably low, and only so much raised as to render the 

 idea probable, that it is an alluvial formation, the result of the accu- 

 mulated mud and sand brought down by large rivers and thrown up 

 by the sea. The cliffs are in part abrupt and rocky ; others are 

 made up of falling masses of mud, sand, and ice. The first, or 

 rocky cliffs, predominate to the southward of a line drawn from the 

 northwest side of Eschscholtz Bay to the southeastern part of the 

 Bay of Good Hope. The second, or diluvial cliffs, complete the re- 

 maining northeast side of the sound, and take in part of the south 

 side of Eschscholtz Bay. Low grounds chiefly border the Bay of 

 Good Hope, and form the land of and around Cape Espenberg. 

 The history of these mud cliffs, and of the remarkable organic re- 

 mains contained in them, has been given in vol. i. Appen- 

 dix [p. 173]. Cape Beaufort, viz., about 300 feet above the level 

 of the sea. This cape seems to constitute a boundary between the 

 hilly ranges above described to the southwest, and the low plains, 

 intersected with lagoons and lakes, which extend to the northeast 

 of it as far as the eye can reach [p. 174]. These plains are the 

 commencement of a country of diluvial formation, that extends 

 from Cape Beaufort to Icy Cape, Reindeer Station, and Wain- 

 wright Inlet. Beyond that Mr. Elson has described the coast and 

 country to be a continuation of the same formations, and at Cape 

 Smyth, near his extreme point, in lat. 71° 13' N., long. 156° 45' W., 

 he observed icy cliffs presenting their fronts under the like circum- 

 stances as at Cape Blossom and in Eschscholtz Bay." 



