PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
329 
shrubs, while the carex preferred the hollow moist places ; the rest of the CHAP, 
surface was occupied by lichens. On the border of the lakes there were 
several curlew, sanderlings, and gulls ; while small flocks of ptarmigan Sept, 
alighted upon those parts which produced berries. A red fox prowling 
among the deserted huts and the graves was the only quadruped seen. 
Nearly the whole of the day was passed at this place in making astro- 
nomical observations ; after which we embarked, and w'ere obliged by 
bad weather to return to the ship. 
The day after my departure, a new cutter, which had been built 
of some wood of the porou-tree grown upon Otaheite, was completed 
and launched, and upon trial found to answer under canvas beyond 
our expectations, doing great credit to Mr. Garrett, the carpenter, who 
built her almost entirely himself I placed her under the charge 
of Lieutenant Belcher, who was afterwards almost daily employed in 
surveying. 
On the 2 2d the aurora borealis was seen in the W . N . W. ; from which 
quarter it passed n.pidly to the N. E., and formed a splendid arch 
emitting vivid and brilliantly coloured coruscations. 
On the 25th the wind, which had blown strong from the north- 
ward the day before, changed to the southward, and had such an effect 
upon the tide that it ebbed twenty hours without intermission. 
In another excursion which I made along the north side of the 
sound, I landed at a cape which had been named after the ship, and 
had the satisfaction of examining an ice formation of a similar nature 
to that in Escholtz Bay, only more extensive, and having a contrary 
aspect. The ice here, instead of merely forming a shield to the cliff, 
w’as imbedded in the indentations along its edge, filling them up nearly 
even with the front. A quantity of fallen earth was accumulated at 
the base of the cliff, which uniting with the earthy spaces intervening 
between the beds of ice, might lead a person to imagine that the ice 
formed the cliff, and supported a soil two or three feet thick, part of 
which appeared to have been precipitated over the brow. But on 
examining it above, the ice was found to be detached from the cliff 
at the back of it ; and in a few instances so much so, that there were 
deep chasms between the two. These chasms are no doubt widened by 
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