CRUISE OF STEAMER CORYVIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 143 



in which the river takes its rise; while the valley now occupied by the river manifests its glacial 

 origin in its form anil trends, the small portion in the middle eroded by the river itself being 

 clearly distinguished by its abrupt angular sides, which contrast sharply with the glacial outlines. 



In general views obtained in sailing along the southern coast the phenomena- presented seemed 

 essentially the same as have been described elsewhere, hills, valleys, and sculptured peaks, testify- 

 ing in all their main trends and contours to the action of ice. A range of mountains of moderate 

 height extends from one extremity of the island to the other, a distance of about 65 miles, the 

 highest point as measured by Lieutenant Berry being 2,500 feel above the sea. 



All the coast region of Siberia that came under our observation, from the Gulf of Anadyr to 

 North Cape, presents traces in great abundance and variety of universal as well as local glaeiation 

 more or less clear and telling. 



Between Plover and Saint Lawrence Bays, where the mountains attain their greatest eleva- 

 tion and where local glaeiation lias been heaviest, the coast is lacerated with deep fiords, ou the 

 lofty granite walls of which the glacial records are in many places well preserved, and otter 

 evidence that could hardly be overlooked by the most careless observer. 



Our first general views of this region were obtained on June 7, when it was yet winter, and 

 the landscape was covered with snow down to the water's edge. After several days of storm the 

 clouds lifted, exposing the heavily abraded fronts of outstanding cliffs; then the smooth over- 

 swept ridges and slopes at the base of the mountains came in sight, and one angular peak after 

 another until a continuous range 40 to 50 miles long could be seen from one stand point. Many of 

 the peaks are fluted with the narrow channels of avalanches, and hollowed with nt'rc amphi- 

 theaters of great beauty of form, while long withdrawing fiords and valleys may be traced back 

 iuto the recesses of the highest groups, once the beds of glaciers that flowed in imposing ranks to 

 the sea. 



Plover Bay, which was examiued in detail, may be taken as a good representative of the 

 fiords of this portion of the coast. The walls rise to an average height of about 2,000 feet, and 

 present a severely desolate and bedraggled appearance, owing to the crumbling condition of the 

 rocks, which in most places are being rapidly disintegrated, loading the slopes with loose, shifting 

 detritus wherever the angle is low eliough to allow it to come to rest. When examined closely, 

 however, this loose material is found to be of no great depth. The solid rock comes to the 

 surface in many places, and on the most enduring portions rounded glaciated surfaces are still 

 found grooved, scratched, and polished in small patches from near the sea level up to a height of 

 a thousand ftet or more. 



Large taluses with their bases under the water occur on both sides of the fiord in front of the 

 side canons that partially separate the main mountain masses that form the walls. These taluses 

 are composed in great part of moraine material, brought down by avalanches of snow from the 

 terminal moraines of small vanished glaciers that lie at a height of from 1,000 to" 5,000 feet, in 

 recesses where the snow accumulated from the surrounding slopes, and where sheltered from the 

 direct action of the sun the glaciers lingered longest. These recent moraines are formed of sev- 

 eral concentric masses shoved together, showing that the glaciers to which they belonged melted 

 and receded gradually, with slight fluctuations of level and rate of decadence, in accordance with 

 c mditions of snow-fall, temperature, &c, like those of lower latitudes. 



When the main central glacier that tilled the fiord was in its prime as a distinct glacier it 

 measured about 30 miles in length and from 5 to 6 miles in width and was from 2,000 to 3,000 

 feet in depth. It then had at least five main tributaries, which, as the trunk melted, became inde- 

 pendent glaciers; and, again, as the trunks of these main tributaries melted their smaller tributa- 

 ries, numbering about seventy-five, and from less than a mile to several miles in length, lingered 

 probably for centuries in the high, cool fountains. These also, as far as we have seen, have van- 

 ished, though possibly some wasting remnant may still exist in the highest and best- protected 

 recesses about the head of the fiord. — 



Along the coast, a distance of 15 or 20 miles to the eastward and southward of the mouth 

 of Metchigme Bay," interesting deposits occur of roughly-stratified glacial detritus in the form 

 of sand, gravel, and bowlders. They rise from the shore in raw, wave-washed bluffs about 40 



