4380 Notices of New Books. 



But before this is accomplished, the upper soil, loosened by the thaw, 

 is itself projected over the cliff, and falls in a heap below, whenever it 

 is ultimately carried away by the tide. 



"' (September, 1826). The cliffs in which the fossils (collected by 

 Mr. Collie) appear to have been imbedded, are part of the range in 

 which the ice formation was seen in July. During our absence of 

 five weeks, we found that the edge of the cliff in one place had bro- 

 ken away four feet, and, in another, two feet and a half, and a further 

 portion of it was on the eve of being precipitated on the beach. In 

 some places where the icy shields had adhered, nothing now remained 

 but frozen earth from the front of the cliff. By cutting those parts of 

 the ice which were still attached, the mud in a frozen state presented 

 itself as before, and confirmed our previous opinion of the nature of 

 the cliff.'— P. 323. 



" The above description of these remarkable cliffs has been quoted 

 at length, as it is not only perfectly clear but concise. The opinions 

 of Captain Beechey and his officers respecting the origin of the ice- 

 cliffs are discussed at considerable length in Dr. Buckland's paper, 

 printed as an Appendix to the Narrative of the Voyage. Mr. Collie 

 describes the fossiliferous cliff as facing the North, and extending two 

 miles and a half in a right line, with few interruptions, and as having 

 a general height of about ninety feet. It is composed of clay, he says, 

 and very fine quartzy and micaceous sand, assuming a grayish colour 

 when dry. The land rises gradually behind the cliff to an additional 

 height of one hundred feet, and is clothed with a black boggy soil, 

 that nourishes brown and gray lichens, mosses, several Ericaceae, Gra- 

 mineae, and various herbaceous plants, and is intersected by valleys 

 pervaded by streams, and having their more protected declivities 

 adorned with shrubs of willow and dwarf birches. * The specimens 

 taken out of the debris at the foot of the cliff (none were dug out of 

 the cliff itself) were in a better state of preservation than those which 

 had been alternately covered and left exposed by the flux and reflux 

 of the tide, or imbedded in the mud and clay of the shoal. A very 

 strong odour, like that of heated bones, was exhaled wherever the fos- 

 sils abounded.'— P. 509. 



" After an interval of twenty-four years, the recent voyage of the 

 1 Herald ' to this interesting spot has given a third opportunity of 

 collecting fossil bones, and examining the structure of these now 

 far-famed cliffs. Captain Kellett, Berthold Seemann, Esq., and Dr. 

 Goodridge, with the works of Kotzebue and Beechey in their hands, 

 and an earnest desire to ascertain which of the conflicting opinions 



