MURDOCH. ] TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTRY. 29 
large bowlders are absent, while pebbles larger than the fist are rare. 
The surface of the ground is covered with a thin soil, supporting a rather 
sparse vegetation of grass, flowering plants, creeping willows, and 
mosses, which is thicker on the higher hillsides and forms a layer of 
turf about a foot thick. Large tracts of comparatively level ground 
are almost bare of grass, and consist of irregular hummocks of black, 
muddy soil, scantily covered with light-colored lichens and full of small 
pools. The lowlands, especially those back of the beach lagoons, are 
marshes, thickly covered with grass and sphagnum. The whole sur- 
face of the land is exceedingly wet in summer, except the higher knolls 
and hillsides, and for about 100 yards back from the edge of the cliffs. 
The thawing, however, extends down only about a foot or eighteen 
inches. Beyond this depth the ground is perpetually frozen for an 
unknown distance. There are no streams of any importance in the im- 
mediate neighborhood of Point Barrow. On the other hand, three of 
the rivers emptying into the Arctic Ocean between Point Barrow and 
the Colville, which Dr. Simpson speaks of as “‘ small and hardly known 
except to persons who have visited them,” ' have been found to be con- 
siderable streams. Two of these were visited by Lieut. Ray in his ex- 
ploring trips in 1882 and 1883. The first, Kua/ru, is reached after trav- 
eling about 50 miles from Point Barrow in a southerly direction. It 
has been traced only for a small part of its course, and there is reason 
to believe, from what the natives say, that it is a tributary of the sec- 
ond named river. Lieut. Ray visited the upper part of the second 
river, Kulugrua (named by him “Meade River”), in March, 1882, when 
he went out to join the native deer hunters encamped on its banks, just 
on the edge of the hilly country. On his return he visited what the 
natives assured him was the mouth of this river, and obtained observa- 
tions for its geographical position. Early in April, 1883, he again vis- 
ited the upper portion of the stream, and traced it back some distance 
into the hilly country. The intermediate portion has never been sur- 
veyed. At the time of each of his visits the river was, of course, frozen 
and the ground covered with snow, but he was able to see that the 
river was of considerable size, upwards of 200 yards wide where he first 
reached it, about 60 miles from its mouth, and showing evidences of a 
large volume of water in the spring. It receives several tributaries. (See 
maps, Pls. I and 11.) 
The third river is known only by hearsay from the natives. It is 
called I’/kpikpfii (Great Cliff), and is about 40 miles (estimated from 
day’s journeys) east of Kulu/grua. It is described as being a larger and 
more rapid stream than the other two, and so deep that it does not 
freeze down to the bottom on the shallow bars, as they say Kulu/grua 
does. Not far from its mouth it is said to receive a tributary from 
the east flowing out of a great lake of fresh water, called Ta/syikpan 
