258 
VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP, with the mud above it, or sometimes with a bank halfway up it, as if 
the superstratum had gradually slid down and accumulated against the 
July, cliff. By the large rents near the edges of the mud cliffs, they appear 
to be breaking away, and contributing daily to diminish the depth of 
water in the bav. 
■/ 
Such is the general conformation of this line of coast. That par- 
ticular formation, which, when it was first discovered by Captain Kotze- 
bue, excited so much curiosity, and bore so near a resemblance to an 
iceberg, as to deceive himself and his officers, when they approached the 
spot to examine it, remains to be described. As we rowed along the 
shore, the shining surface of small portions of the cliff's attracted our atten- 
tion and directed us where to search for this curious phenomenon, which 
we should otherwise have had difficulty in finding, notwithstanding its 
locality had been particularly described ; for so large a portion of the 
ice cliff has thawed since it was visited by Captain Kotzebue and his 
naturalist, that only a few insignificant patches of the frozen surface 
now remain. The largest of these, situated about a mile to the westward 
of Elephant Point, was particularly examined by Mr. Collie, who, on 
cutting through the ice in a horizontal direction, found that it formed 
only a casing to the cliff, which was composed of mud and gravel in a 
frozen state. On removing the earth above, it was also evident, by a de- 
cided line of separation between the ice and the cliff, that the Kussians 
had been deceived by appearances. By cutting into the upper surface 
of the cliff three feet from the edge, frozen earth, similar to that which 
formed the face of the cliffj was found at eleven inches’ depth ; and 
four yards further back the same substance occurred at twenty-two 
inches’ depth. 
This glacial facing we afterwards noticed in several parts of the 
sound ; and it appears to me to be occasioned either by the snow being 
banked up against the cliff* or collected in its hollows in the winter, and 
converted into ice in the summer by partial thawings and freezings — or 
by the constant flow of water during the summer over the edges of the 
cliffs, on which the sun’s rays operate less forcibly than on other parts, 
in consequence of their aspect. The streams thus become converted into 
ice, either while trickling down the still frozen surface of the cliffs, or after 
