114 Smithsonian Exploration in Alaska in 1904 



" For miles along the river in this portion of its course these icy 

 cliffs appear and disappear at regular intervals, so that it is observed 

 that they recur in bends that are parallel with each other, which 

 would seem to indicate that its existence is not due to deposits of 

 ice by the river, else it would be in all of the bends, but that its 

 presence is due to some other cause. If a straight line is drawn 

 through the center of one of these ice-cliffs, and through the E.N.E. 

 and W.S.W. points of the compass, it will not only touch all of the 

 cliffs, but if extended to the sea will touch the coast at a point very 

 near Elephant Point, on Eschscholtz Bay, where, it is well known, a 

 peculiar ice formation in the bluffs has been observed and com- 

 mented upon by numerous scientific men. 



" Climbing to the top of one of these ice-cliffs, Mr. Townsend and 

 I pushed our way through the dense thickets of willow and luxuriant 

 growth of grass into the interior for about one mile, where we found 

 a shallow lake about a mile in diameter, which I have no doubt had 

 its origin in the mass of ice over which we had been travelling. It 

 is almost inconceivable how such a rank vegetation can be sustained 

 under such conditions. If we stood in one place any length of time 

 the spongy moss became saturated, and soon a pool of dark-colored 

 vv^ater made our position untenable. 



" Besides the moss, berries, and stunted willows, clusters of spruce 

 trees, some measuring six and eight inches in diameter, have taken 

 root and grown in the thin strata of soil overlying the ice." 



In the same report on pages 81-102 are Notes on the Natural His- 

 tory and Ethnology of Northern Alaska, by Charles H. Townsend, 

 page 85. " Above the many-channeled delta the Kowak assumes a 

 different character. High banks of old ice and clay appear, bearing 

 a thin coat of surface soil, which supports the stunted arctic growth 

 of white spruce. The banks, undermined by the melting of their 

 ancient icy substratum, often slide in massive sections into the river, 

 carrying a wide margin of forest with them. * * * Sometimes 

 cavernous holes are excavated as the gritty ice disappears, and the 

 overarching mass of earth hangs ready to fall when a few more 

 hours exposure to the incessant arctic sunshine shall have set it 

 free. These banks are too icy to be tunneled by kingfishers or bank 

 swallows, consequently such birds are scarce along the lower river. 



Page 89. " Elephas. — Tusks, teeth, and bones of the mammoth 

 were seen in many of the villages on the Kowak River. The na- 

 tives frequently carve ornaments and useful articles out of mam- 

 months' tusks, and I saw some very large soup-ladles made out of this 

 fossil ivory. At Cape Prince of Wales, where the Corwin anchored 



