328 
VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP- river. It is, however, very improbable that there should be any direct 
communication betw'een these two inlets, as the natives would, in that 
Sept, case, have informed us of it when they drew their chart of the sound. 
While v/e were off here, we noticed a parhelion so bright that it 
was difficult to distinguish it from the sun ; a circumstance the more 
deserving of remark, in consequence of the naturalist of Kotzebue’s ex- 
pedition having observed that this phenomenon is very rare in these 
seas, and that a Kussian grown old in the Aleutian Islands never saw^ 
it more than once. Quitting this inlet, we directed our course along 
the land toward Cape Espenburg, and found that the bar was not con- 
fined to the mouth of the inlet alone, but extended the whole way to 
the cape, and was not passable in any part ; having tried ineffectually 
in those places which afforded the best prospect of success. 
On landing at Cape Espenburg, we found that the sea penetrated 
to the southward of it, and formed it into a narrow strip of land, upon 
which were some high sand-hills. The point had a great many poles 
placed erect upon it, and had evidently been the residence of the Es- 
quimaux ; but it was now entirely deserted. Near these poles there 
were several huts and native burial-places : the manner in which these 
bodies were disposed differed from that of the eastern Esquimaux. The 
corpse was here deposited in a sort of coffin formed of loose planks, 
placed upon a platform of driftwood, and covered over with a board 
and several spars, kept in their places by poles driven into the ground 
in a slanting direction, with their ends crossing each other over the 
pile. The body was found lying with the head to the westward, and 
had been interred in a double dress, the under one made of the skins 
of eider-draEes, and the upper one of those of rein-deer. It had been 
exposed a considerable time, as the skeleton only was left ; but enough 
of the dress remained to show the manner in which the body had been 
clothed. 
The beach was in a great measure composed of dark-coloured vol- 
canic sand, and was strewed with dead shells of the cardium, Venus, 
turbo, murex, solen, trochus, mytilus, mya, lepas, and tellina genus : there 
were also some large asterias. The sand-hills were partly covered with 
elymus grass, the vaccinium vitis idaea, empetrum nigrum, and other 
