ICE-CLIFFS ON THE KOWAK RIVER 
By Lieut. J. C. Cantwell, 
United States lievenue- Cutter Service 
The Kowak river rises in the northwestern pjlrt of Alaska, and 
after a tortuous easterly course of about 550 miles, the greater 
portion of which is within the Arctic circle, it flows into Hotham 
inlet, a large body of fresh water opening into Kotzebue sound. 
During the summers of lS84-’85 it was my good fortune to visit 
this region and to make a reconnaissance of the stream from its 
mouth to its headwaters. Among the many novel and interest- 
ing features of the region, which had never previously been visited 
by white men, none Avere more striking than a remarkable series 
of ice-clifts obseiwed along the banks of the river about 80 miles 
from its mouth. These deposits of ice Avere first seen in some of 
the loAv silt banks of the delta, and it Avas supposed that they 
Avere the result of the spring freshets in the river forcing large 
masses of ice into the soft, yielding soil of the banks. But Avhen 
on our emerging from the delta and reaching the higher land of 
the interior Ave still found these ice deposits in the form of cliffs, 
from 80 to 150 feet high, the theory of current formation had to 
be abandoned. Tlie banks of the stream in the region Avhere the 
ice-cliffs are found are not all filled Avith ice, and the Avater- 
inarks on those AAdiich are composed only of soil and rock shoAV 
be.yond question that the Avater has never reached a sufficiently 
high stage to have transi>orted the ice to its present position. 
At tAvo points the cliffs attain an altitude of OA'er 150 feet, and 
one cliff measured b}'' sextant angles showed 185 feet. The tops 
of all the cliffs Avere superposed by a layer of black, silt-like soil 
from G to 8 feet thick, and from this springs a luxuriant groAvth 
of mosses, grass, and the characteristic Arctic shrubbery, con- 
sisting for the most j>art of aauIIoav, alder, and berry bushes, and 
a dense forest of spruce trees from 50 to 80 feet high and from 
4 to 8 inches in diameter. 
W’here the face of the cliffs Avas toAvards the south the upper 
j)ortion of the formation Avould be found undergoing the process 
of destruction under the melting action ol' the sun’s rays, Avhile 
in other situations the erosion of the river current Avas constantly 
