261< REMARKS AND OPINIONS. 



before you are in sight of land. A considerable 

 stream from the interior of America is said to 

 empty itself here, and to form sand-banks on the 

 coast. 



We penetrated through Beering's Straits to the 

 north. The two coasts retire from each other. 

 Cook saw the Asiatic coast, as far as the North 

 Cape, under (iS" 56' north latitude ; the American, 

 as far as the Icy Cape, 70° 29' north latitude. Low 

 alluvial ground forms the shore before the high 

 lands of America, and the sea which washes it has 

 no depth. According to Cook, the Asiatic coast 

 is of the same nature. The land seems to gain 

 upon the sea by the alluvion of sand ; and it is to 

 be feared that it will gradually fill up this sea. 



The sandy coast of America is indented by 

 many inlets and friths. We left the southern 

 SchischmarefF Bay unexplored, and penetrated 

 into the broad Kotzebue's Sound, which, to the 

 south of the high Cape Mulgrave, runs in a south- 

 eastern direction into the primitive land, and the 

 back of which approaches to Norton Sound, which 

 runs in from tlie southern part of Beering's 

 Straits. * A frith, which opens in alluvial land, on 

 the southern side of Kotzebue's Sound,- and leads 

 into the open sea in a voyage of nine days, in the 

 baydares of the natives, which we call the Bay of 



* Compare the accounts collected by Kobelef, in 1779, 

 among the Tschukutskoi, and the later Russian cJiarts, wliicii 

 Arrowsmith and other geographers follow. 



