MURDOCH. ] TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTRY. Prt 
some times as far as the Mackenzie River. The extent of their wander- 
ings will be treated of more fully in connection with their relations to 
the other natives of the Northwest. They appear to be unacquainted 
with the interior except for about 100 miles south of Point Barrow. 
The coast from Refuge Inlet runs nearly straight in a generally north- 
east direction to Point Barrow, and consists of steep banks of clay, 
gravel, and pebbles, in appearance closely resembling glacial drift, bor- 
dered by a narrow, steep beach of pebbles and gravel, and broken at 
intervals by steep gulleys which are the channels of temporary streams 
running only during the period of melting snow, and by long, narrow, 
and shallow lagoons, to whose edges the cliffs slope gradually down, 
sometimes ending in low, steep banks. The mouths of these lagoons 
are generally rather wide, and closed by a bar of gravel thrown up by 
the waves during the season of open water. In the spring, the snow 
and ice on the land melt months before the sea opens and flood the ice 
on the lagoons, which also melts gradually around the edges until there 
is a sufficient head of water in the lagoon to break through the bar at 
the lowest point. This stream soon cuts itself a channel, usually about 
20 or 30 yards wide, through which the lagoon is rapidly drained, soon 
cutting out an open space of greater or less extent in the sea ice. 
Before the sea opens the lagoon is drained down to its level, and the 
tide ebbs and flows through the channel, which is usually from knee- 
deep to waist-deep, so that the lagoon becomes more or less brackish. 
When the sea gets sufficiently open for waves to break upon the beach, 
they in a short time bring in enough gravel to close the outlet. The 
cliffs gradually decrease in height till they reach Cape Smyth, where 
they are about 25 feet high, and terminate in low knolls sloping down 
to the banks of the broad lagoon Isitkwe, which is made by the con- 
fluence of two narrow, sinuous gulleys, and is only 10 feet deep in the 
deepest part. 
Rising from the beach beyond the mouth of this lagoon is a slight ele- 
vation, 12 feet above the sea level, which was anciently the site of a 
small village, called by the same name as the lagoon. On this elevation 
was situated the United States signal station of Ooglaamie. Beyond 
this the land is level with the top of the beach, which is broad and nearly 
flat, raised into a slight ridge on the outer edge. About half a mile 
from the station, just at the edge of the beach, is the small lagoon 
Imérnye, about 200 yards in diameter, and nearly filled up with marsh. 
From this point the land slopes down to Elson Bay, a shallow body 
of water inclosed by the sandspit which forms Point Barrow. This is 
a continuation of the line of the beach, varying in breadth from 200 to 
600 yards and running northeast for 5 miles, then turning sharply to the 
- east-southeast and running out in a narrow gravel spit, 2 miles long, 
which is continued eastward by a chain of narrow, low, sandy islands, 
which extend as far as Point Tangent. At the angle of the point the 
land is slightly elevated into irregular turf-covered knolls, on which the 
