48 
LIFE OF DEAN BUCKLAND. 
[CH. II. 
Captains Franklin and Parry, who had started the previous 
year on a second voyage of discovery to the Arctic regions. 
During the autumns of 1826 and 1827, Captain Beechey 
was to await in Behring Straits the appearance of one 
or both of these officers. As his vessel would have to 
traverse in her route a portion of the globe hitherto little 
explored, it was intended to employ her in surveying and 
exploring such parts of the Pacific as were within her 
reach, and for this purpose the ship was provided with 
both naturalist and surveyor. In the group of the Bonin 
Islands, Captain Beechey found one composed of basaltic 
pillars ; w far grander,” he writes to Buckland, “ than the 
Giants’ Causeway.” He named it Buckland Island, and 
adds that “ on the south side it is possessed of a good 
harbour.” In July 1826 the Blossom anchored in Kotzebue 
Sound, there to await the arrival of Captain Franklin. 
Captain Beechey employed the time in surveying and 
exploring as much of the coast as possible. He visited 
the extraordinary ice formation in Eschscholtz Bay men¬ 
tioned by Kotzebue as being “ covered with a soil half 
a foot thick, producing the most luxuriant grass,” and 
“ containing an abundance of mammoth bones.” Sailing 
up the bay, which was extremely shallow, he landed at a 
deserted village on a low sandy point, to which he gave 
the name of Elephant Point, from the bones of that animal 
being found near it. 
“ The cliffs in which this singular formation was dis¬ 
covered begin near this point, and extend westward in 
a nearly straight line to a rocky cliff of primitive formation 
at the entrance of the bay. The cliffs are from twenty to 
