68 I. C. Russell — Expedition to Mount St. Elias. 



Disenchantment bay, an exploration of the eastern shore of 

 Yakutat bay was made. The following extract indicates the 

 character of work clone there : 



" Digges' sound [Disenchantment bay] was the only place in the bay 

 that presented the least prospect of any interior navigation, and this was 

 necessarily very limited by the close connected range of lofty snowy 

 mountains that stretched along the coast at no great distance from the sea- 

 side. Mr. Puget's attention was next directed to the opening in the low 

 land, but as the wind was variable and adverse to the progress of the 

 vessel, a boat was again despatched to continue the investigation of these 

 shores, which are compact from Point Latouche and were then free from 

 ice. This opening was found to be formed by an island about two miles 

 long, in a direction S. 50° E. and N. 50° W., and- about a mile broad, lying 

 at the distance of about half a mile from the mainland. Opposite to the 

 south part of this, named by Mr. Puget Knight's Island, is Eleanor's cove, 

 which is the eastern extremity of Beering's [Yakutat] bay, in latitude 59° 

 44^, longitude 220° 51^. Knight's island admits of a navigable passage all 

 round it, but there is an islet situated between it and the mainland on its 

 northeast side. From Eleanor's cove the coast takes a direction S. 30° W. 

 about six miles to the east point of a channel leading to the southwest 

 between the continent and some islands that lie off it. This was con- 

 sidered to lead along the shores of the mainland to Point Mulgrave, and 

 in the event of its proving navigable, the examination of the bay would 

 have been complete, and the vessel brought to our appointed place of 

 meeting, which was now supposed to be no very great distance." 



In endeavoring to reach Port Mulgrave by a channel leading 

 between the islands on the eastern side of the bay and the main- 

 land, the Chatham grounded, and was gotten off with considera- 

 ble difficulty. Many observations concerning the geography and 

 the natives are recorded in the narrative of this exploration. 



Belcher, 1837.* 

 The next account f of explorations around Yakutat bay that 



* Narrative of a Voyage round the World, performed in the ship Sulphur 

 during the years 1836-1842 ; by Captain Sir Edward Belcher : 2 vols., 8°, 

 London, 1843. 



t A fort was built by the Eussians, in 1795, on the strip of land separating 

 Bay de Monti from the ocean, and was colonized by convicts from Eussia. 

 In 1803, all of the settlers were killed and the fort was destroyed by the 

 Yakutat Indians. So complete was this massacre that no detailed account 

 of it has ever appeared. (Alaska and its Eesources, by W. H. Dall, 1870, 

 pp. 316, 317, 323.) 



