486 HOWOETH ON SURFACE ELEVATION IN ARCTIC REGIONS. 



<' 300 or 400 yards from the present high-water-mark, and not 

 " less than 30 feet above the sea-level. We found no indication 

 *' of this part of the island having been inhabited, unless the 

 " narwhal's horn above alluded to be considered as such." * 

 Again, speaking of the northern part of Melville Island, near 

 Point Nias, two pieces of drift-wood were also found on the beach 

 10 or 20 feet above the present level of the sea, both of pine, one 

 7^ feet long and 3 inches in diameter, and the other much 

 smaller. Both were partly bin^ied in sand and their fibres so 

 decayed as to fall to pieces on being laid hold of.f Again, speak- 

 ing of the west of Melville Island : " The land gains upon the sea, 

 " as it is called, in process of time, as it has certainly done here, 

 " from the situation in which we found the drift-wood and the 

 " skeletons of Whales." J 



King William Island is rather low, the western shore extremely 

 so, and bears evidence of a gradual and tolerably recent upheaval 

 from beneath the sea.§ These extracts from the Arctic voyages 

 might be extended, but they will suffice to show what is generally 

 recognised, that the archipelago north of the American continent 

 shows, wherever examined, signs of current elevation. We may 

 now continue our survey along its western coast. 



So long ago as 1778, Captain Cook makes the following remark 

 about the coast of Behring's Straits, near Cape Denbigh : — " After 

 '' breakfast a party of men were sent to the peninsula for brooms 



" and spruce It appeared to me that this peninsula 



*^ must have been an island in remote times, for there were marks 

 " of the sea having flowed over the isthmus. And even now, it 

 '* appeared to be kept out by a bank of sand, stones, and wood 

 " thrown up by the waves. By this bank it was evident that the 

 " land was here encroaching upon the sea, and it was easy to 

 " trace its gradual formation." || 



In describing the journey of Captain Krenitzin and Lieutenant 

 Levashef in 1768-69, Coxe says : " The * St. Catherine' wintered 

 " in the Strait of Alasca, and was drawn into shoal water. Tlie 

 *' instructions set forth that a private ship had in 1762 found 

 " there a commodious haven, but the captain looked for it in vain. 

 " . . , . On surveying this strait and the coast of Alasca 

 " many craters were observed in the low grounds close to the 

 " shore, and the soil produced few plants. May not this allow 

 " the conjecture that the coast had undergone considerable 

 *^ changes, even since the year 1762 ? " ^ 



In Whymper's account of his journey to Alaska, I find the fol- 

 lowing passage : — " The island of St. Michael's is covered with 

 " moss and berries, resting sometimes on a bed of clay, but more 

 " commonly on a porous lava rock. The formation apparently 



* " Parry's Voyage in 1819-20," p. 68. t Ibid., p. 193. 



t Ibid., p. 235. 



§ M'Clintock in " Journal of the Royal Geographical Society," vol. xxx, 

 p. 10. 



11 " Cook's Voyages," edition of 1842, vol. ii. p. 344. 

 ^ " Coxe's Russian Discoveries," p. 251. 



