the vicinity of Bering Strait. 105 
times from these beds, which are near the beach, and reported 
the coal of good quality. It will prove of importance if steam 
whaleships come into general use in this region. 
e sailed for Icey Cape the next day, but the wind being 
light, did not reach it until the 25th of August. That evening 
we proceeded, seeing several whaleships, and the following 
afternoon spoke the cutter, who reported ice near at hand, an 
that she did not think we could proceed much further with 
safety. We soon made the ice, which was about eleven miles 
off shore and nearly parallel with it, consisting of floating 
fragments, much soiled with mud and rising seldom more than 
ten feet above the water, forming a fringe around of solid fields 
of rather rough pack ice, extending beyond the range of vision 
from the masthead. 
We spoke several of the whalers as we proceeded. All repre- 
sented the ice as moving in toward the land. The night before 
it had moved in eighteen miles, there being a strong northerly 
wind. After passing Point Belcher and finding that off the 
Sea Horse Islands there was only a quarter of a mile of open 
water, we decided to anchor and await further developments. 
The weather was cloudy with heavy wet fog. That night the 
ice moved in three miles toward shore; the wind also strength- 
ened; the weather showed no signs of improvement, and, 
rather than risk being grounded by the ice with only two 
months’ provisions on board, I decided to take advantage of 
the favorable wind and return to the southward, where there 
was still much work to do. We reached nearly the latitude of 
Point Barrow, and were about fifty miles westward from it. 
The country in this vicinity was almost perfectly flat, and 
nothing like a hill or rise was visible anywhere. 
€ vegetation was quite dense on the land, but less profuse 
than at Cape Lisburne and with fewer flowers. Large lumps of 
coal lay on the beach, which had been pushed up by the ice 
from the bottom of the sea, but no bed rock could be seen, 
and the soil seemed to be chiefly a sort of red gravel. At 
adepth of two feet is a stratum of pure ice (not frozen soil) 
of unknown depth. This formation extends, with occasional 
gaps, north to Point Barrow and east to Return Reef, where 
the ice layer is about six feet above the level of the sea. It 
goes south at least as far as Icy Cape without any decided 
break, and is found in different localities as far south as Kotze- 
bue Sound. 
We sailed on the 28th of August from Point Belcher and 
entered Kotzebue Sound on the 30th. The next morning, 
August 31st, we anchored in Chamisso Harbor, Eschscholtz 
Bay, in which vicinity we remained four days. We were beset 
With natives from all quarters, eager to trade and much disap- 
