i 8 o 8 -i 822 .] CAPTAIN BEECH EYE EXPEDITION. 
49 
eighty feet in height, and rise inland to a rounded range 
of hills between four and five hundred feet above the 
sea.” 
Leaving Mr. Collie, the ship’s surgeon, with a party to 
examine the cliffs in which the fossils and ice formation 
had been seen by Kotzebue, Captain Beechey proceeded 
to the head of the bay in a smaller boat. 
“ We landed upon a muddy beach, and were obliged to 
wade a quarter of a mile before we could reach a cliff 
for the purpose of having a view of the surrounding 
country. Having gained its summit, we were gratified 
by the discovery of a large river coming from the south¬ 
ward and passing between our station and a range of 
hills. At a few miles’ distance the river passed between 
rocky cliffs, whence the land on either side became hilly, 
and interrupted our further view of its course. The width 
of the river was about a mile and a half, but this space was 
broken into narrow and intricate channels by banks, some 
dry and others partly so; the stream passed rapidly 
between them, and at an earlier period of the season a 
considerable body of water must be poured into the sound, 
though from the comparative width of the channels the 
current of the latter is not much felt. The shore around 
us was flat, broken by several lakes, in which there were 
a great many wild-fowl. The cliff we had ascended was 
composed of a bluish mud and clay, and was full of deep 
chasms. 
“ Meanwhile Mr. Collie had been successful in his search 
among the cliffs at Elephant Point, and had discovered 
several bones and grinders of elephants and other animals 
in a fossil state. Associating these two discoveries, I 
bestowed the name of Elephant upon the Point, to mark 
its vicinity and 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 
4 
