254 
VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP, direction. This was occasioned by some large rivers emptying them- 
selves into the sound, the fresh water of which remained at the surface, 
July, and flowed in a contrary direction to the tide of the ocean. Had this 
1826 
occurred in an intricate channel it might have been dangerous ; but 
in Kotzebue Sound the bottom is quite even, and there is plenty of 
room to drift about. 
At four o’clock in the morning of the 25th we reached our ap- 
pointed rendezvous at Chamisso Island, five days later than had been 
agreed upon by Captain Franklin and myself, but which, it appeared, 
was quite early enough, as there were no traces of his having arrived. 
On approaching the island we discovered, through our telescopes, 
a small pile of stones upon its summit ; and as every object of this kind 
which was likely to be the work of human hands was interesting, from 
the possibility that it might be the labour of the party we were in 
search of, it was not long in undergoing an examination ; there was 
nothing however to lead to its history, but conjecture attributed it to 
Captain Kotzebue, who visited that spot in 1816. 
The ship was anchored nearly as far up in Kotzebue Sound as a 
vessel of her class can go, between Chamisso Island on the south, and 
Choris peninsula on the north, with Escholtz Bay on the east, and an 
open space in the west, in which the coast was too distant to be seen. The 
land about this part of the Sound is generally characterised by rounded 
hiUs from about six hundred feet to a thousand above the sea, with small 
lakes and rivers ; its surface is rent into deep furrows, which, until a very 
late period in the summer, are filled with water, and being covered 
with a thick swampy moss, and in some places with long grass or 
bushes, it is extremely tedious to traverse it on foot. Early in the 
summer myriads of moskitos infest this swampy shore, and almost 
preclude the possibility of continuing any pursuit ; but in August they 
begin to die off, and soon afterwards entirely disappear. 
Chamisso Island, the highest part of which is 231 feet above the 
sea, is steep, except to the eastward, where it ends in a low sandy point, 
upon which are the remains of some Esquimaux habitations ; it has 
the same swampy covering as the land just described, from which, until 
