Ice-beds on Eschscholtz Bay 103 



from above, or by tbe snow being banked up against the cliff in 

 winter, and afterwards converted into ice by alternate thawing and 

 freezing, producing the appearance which deceived the Russians. 



" The cliifs in which this singular formation is found begin half 

 a mile from the eastern extremity of Elephant Point and extend 

 westward, nearly in a direct line, about five miles. They are from 

 forty to one hundred and fifty feet in height, and rise inland to 

 rounded hills from two hundred to three hundred feet high. 



" The eastern part, where the ice formation is found, is nearly 

 perpendicular for about one mile ; from thence to the western ex- 

 tremity, it is slightly inclined and intersected by small valleys and 

 streams of water. 



" I examined the ice, and, although not fully convinced that 

 Beechey has given the true explanation of it, I do not think it is 

 a glacial formation. In several places where water has run down 

 over the face of the cliff, in small streams, from the melting snow 

 above, I found holes melted at least thirty feet deep, showing solid 

 walls of clear ice. 



" I also ascended the cliff and dug down from the top in several 

 places, and always came to solid ice, after digging through frozen 

 earth for a few feet. I searched the face of the cliff for fossil re- 

 mains, but found none, either in the ice or in tlie soil above it. I 

 was more fortunate, however, on the beach below, after the tide fell. 

 There I found a large number of mammoth bones and tusks, and 

 some smaller bones belonging probably to the ' Aurock ' (Bison) 

 and musk-ox." 



[Extract from a Report to C. P. Pattersox, Supt. Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey. By W. H. Dall, Assistant in charge of schooner " Yukon," employed 

 on the coast of Alaska. American Journal of Science, 1881, Vol. 21, p. 106.] 



"On the 2d of September (1880), the weather being unsuitable 

 for observations, I took the large boat and crew and crossed the bay 

 toward Elephant Point, the site of the extraordinary ice formation, 

 first observed by Kotzebue and afterward reported on by Beechey 

 and Seemann. 



" We landed on a small, low point near some old huts, and pro- 

 ceeded along the beach about a mile, the banks being chiefly com- 

 posed of volcanic breccia or a slaty gneissoid rock. They rose 

 fifteen to fifty feet in height above the sea, rising inland to hilh' 

 slopes, without peaks and probably not attaining more than three 

 or four hundred feet anywhere in the vicinity. 



" As we passed eastward along the beach, a change took place 



