PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
259 
they reach the earth at their base, in which case the ice rises like a CHAP. 
stalagmite, and in time reaches the surface. But before this is com- 
pleted, the upper soil, loosened by the thaw, is itself projected over the July, 
8^6 
cliff, and falls in a heap below, whence it is ultimately carried away by 
the tide. We visited this spot a month later in the season, and found 
a considerable alteration in its appearance, manifesting more clearly 
than before the deception under which Kotzebue laboured. 
The deserted village upon the low point consisted of a row of huts, 
rudely formed with drift-wood and turf, about six feet square and four 
feet in height. In front of them was a quantity of drift-wood raised 
upon rafters; and around them there were several heaps of bones, and 
skulls of seals and grampuses, which in all probabihty had been retained 
comformably with the superstitions of the Greenlanders, who carefully 
preserve these parts of the skeleton*. A rank grass grew luxuriantly 
about these deserted abodes, and also about the edges of several pools 
of fresh water, in which there were some wild fowl. We returned to the 
ship late at night, and found her ready for sea. 
Crantz Greenland, Vol. I. 
L L 2 
