98 Smithsonian Exploration in Alaska in 1904 



which was reached so early in the summer as the end of July, at the 

 depth of twenty-two inches, was not merely an unthawed layer of 

 the superficial soil, reposing on pure ice at some distance below 



" The above description of these remarkable cliffs has been quoted 

 at length, as it is not only perfectly clear but also concise. The 

 opinions of Captain Beechey and his officers respecting the origin 

 of the ice-cliffs are discussed at considerable length in Dr. Buckland's 

 paper, printed as an appendix to the Narrative of the Voyage. 



" After an interval of twenty-four years, the recent voyage of the 

 ' Herald ' to this interesting spot has given a third opportunity of 

 collecting fossil bones and examining the structure of these now 

 far-famed cliffs. Captain Kellett, Berthold Seemann, Esq., and 

 Dr. Goodridge, with the works of Kotzebue and Beechey in their 

 hands, and an earnest desire to ascertain which of the conflicting 

 opinions enunciated by these officers was most consistent with the 

 facts, came to the conclusion, after a rigid investigation of the cliffs, 

 that Kotzebue was correct in considering them to be icebergs. I 

 have been favored with papers on the subject from each of the 

 Herald's officers named above, and shall quote as fully from them as 

 my limits allow, after premising a few general observations on the 

 frozen cliff's of other parts of the arctic coast that have come under 

 my personal observation. 



" At Cape jMaitland in Liverpool Bay, which forms the estuary of 

 the Beghula River, and lies near the seventieth parallel, there are 

 precipitous cliff's from eighty to one hundred feet high, composed 

 of layers of black clay or loam enclosing many small waterworn 

 pebbles and a few large boulders, with the exception of about eigh- 

 teen inches of soil on the summit, which thaw as the summer advan- 

 ces, these cliff's present to the sea a constantly frozen wall, that 

 crumbles annually [p. 6] under the action of the rays of a summer 

 sun, but the fragments being carried away by the waves and pre- 

 vented from accumulating, the perpendicular form of the cliff' is 

 preserved. Elsewhere on the coast cliffs equally vertical, but having 

 a different exposure, were seen masked by a talus of snow, over 

 which a coating of soil had been thrown by land-floods of melting 

 snow pouring down from the inland slopes. The duration of these 

 glacier-like snow-banks varies with circumstances. When the cliffs 

 rise out of deep water, the ice on which the talus rests is broken 

 up almost every summer, and the superincumbent mass, previously 



' Richardson's comments on Beechey in a foot note. 



