PLOVER BAY. 141 



in 1848- '49, in connection with the FrankUn search. It is situated in 

 latitude 64° 30', and indents the southern part of the promontory sepa- 

 rating Anadir bay from Bering strait. The weather was such as to give 

 us while approaching it a good view of a long stretch of this part of the 

 Siberian coast. The outlines of this coast are ever3nvhere bold and 

 mountainous, though none of the highest points in sight probably ex- 

 ceed 4,000 feet in elevation. It is entirely bare and treeless, brownish 

 or gray, showing only here and there in the valleys the green color of 

 herbage. 



Fiord-like inlets, and narrow straits of the same nature, characterize 

 this part of the coast, but the}^ are on a small scale as compared with 

 those of British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. Soundings given 

 on the charts show that the water in these inlets and channels is deeper 

 than that about their mouths, but the greatest depth actually recorded 

 appears to be about 50 fathoms.^'^ 



Plover bay is one of these small fiords, surrounded by steep, rock}^ 

 mountains, notably covered everywhere on their slopes with talus ma- 

 terial, consisting of broken angular rock, through which spires and crags 

 of solid rock often project, especially on the sides facing the sea. Gen- 

 erally speaking, the mountains show ordinary denudation forms, with 

 wide buttress-like projections and intervening steep valleys and ravines ; 

 the shapes assumed resembling those commonly met with where the 

 rocks are so much shattered and jointed as to crumble away under the 

 weather with almost equal facility in any direction. The ranges end 

 along the coast in capes terminated by seacliffs. On the whole, the 

 most peculiar feature is the great abundance of loose angular material. 

 It is doubtful to what extent this may be directly referred to rapid dis- 

 integration due to the subarctic climate of the climate, or in how far it 

 may be accepted as evidence of prolonged weathering uninterrupted by 

 glaciating agents. 



From cape Tchalpin (Indian point) to cape Nismenni, and thence as 

 far as cape Tchukotski, the rocks as seen from the sea are generally gray 

 in color and are in all probability granitic. Between the range ending 

 seaward at cape Tchukotski and the valley containing lake Moore of the 

 chart is a smaller range composed near the sea of similar gray rocks, but 

 about two miles inland assuming brownish and reddish colors. Brownish 

 and reddish weathering rocks also compose most of the next range, 

 which separates lake Moore from Plover bay and includes mount 

 Slavianka. From what was afterward seen in Plover bay, this differ- 

 ence of coloration may not indicate any essential change in composition. 



*Dall, however, speaks of a depth of over 100 fathoms having been obtained in the center of 

 Plover bay. Alaska and its Resources, pp. 465, 612. 

 XIX— Bull. Geoi,. See. Am., Vol. 5, 1893. 



