PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
323 
some, pestering us for tawack, and receiving the little we had to give CHAP, 
them in the most ungracious manner, without oifering any return. y 
I found Mr. Collie had been successful in his search among the Sei)t. 
cliifs at Elephant Point, and had discovered several bones and grinders 
of elephants and other animals in a fossil state, of which a full descrip- 
tion and drawings from the remains will be found in the Appendix. 
Associating these two discoveries, I bestowed the name of Elephant 
upon the point, to mark its vicinity to the place where the fossils were 
found ; and upon the river that of Buckland, in compliment to Dr. 
Buckland, the professor of geology at Oxford, to whom I am much in- 
debted for the above mentioned description of the fossils, and for the 
arrangement of the geological memoranda attached to this work. 
The cliff in which these fossils appear to have been imbedded 
is part of the range in which the ice formation was seen in July. 
During our absence (a space of five weeks) we found that the edge of 
the cliffin one place had broken away four feet, and in another two feet 
and a half, and a further portion of it was on the eve of being pre- 
cipitated upon the beach. In some places w’here the icy shields had 
adhered to the cliff nothing now remained, and frozen earth formed the 
front of the cliff. By cutting through 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. Without 
putting it to this test, appearances might weU have led to the con- 
clusion come to by Kotzebue and M. Escholtz ; more especially if 
it happened to be visited early in the summer, and in a season less 
favourable than that in which we viewed it. The earth, which is fast 
falling away from the cliffs — not in this place only, but in all parts of 
the bay — is carried away by the tide ; and throughout the summer there 
must be a tendency to diminish the depth of the water, which at no 
very distant period will probably leave it navigable only by boats. It 
is now so shallow off the ice cliffs, that a bank dries at two miles" 
distance from the shore ; and it is only at the shingly points which 
occur opposite the ravines that a convenient landing can be effected. 
In consequence of this shallow water there was much difficulty in 
embarking the fossils, the tusks in particular, the largest of which 
T t2 
