Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/233

Rh character than the opposite shore, though it still resembles it in its swampy covering, and in the occurrence of lakes wherever the land is flat. Cape Deceit, so named by Kotzebue, is a bold promontory with a conspicuous rock off it. It appears to be composed of compact limestone, in large angular blocks. To the east of Cape Deceit are two bays, each with a river, having bars across their entrances. The first promontory eastward appears to be composed of limestone; on the second they met with slaty limestone, talcaceous slate, and alum slate. The extent of Spafareif bay is about three miles, when it separates into a number of small branches communicating with several lakes. The coast of this part of the sound was found covered with a deep swampy moss. A range of hills extends eastward to Escholtz Bay, which terminates in a river about a mile and a half in width, and broken, at the time it was visited, into narrow and intricate channels by banks—some dry, and others only partly so. The shore around is flat, broken by several lakes, with cliffs principally formed of diluvial clay; and Captain Beechey has satisfactorily shown, that the bones which the naturalists of Kotzebue's expedition believed to have been incased in ice, were embedded in this clay. From Elephant Point westward to the neck of Choris Peninsula, the shore is difficult of access on account of long muddy flats extending into the bay, and, in some places, dry at low water, a quarter of a mile from the beach. The land about this part of the sound is generally characterised by rounded hills, from about six hundred to a thousand feet above the sea, with small lakes and rivers. Its surface is rent into deep furrows, which, until a very late period in the summer, are filled with water, and being covered with a thick swampy moss, or with long grass or bushes, it is extremely tedious to traverse it on foot. Chamisso Island, the highest part of which is 231 feet above the sea, is steep, except to the eastward, where it ends in a low sandy point, upon which are the remains of some Esquimaux habitations. It has the same swampy covering as the !and before described, from which, until late in the summer, several streams descend, and are very convenient for procuring water. Detached from Chamisso there is a steep rock, which was named Puffin Island, from the quantity of those birds which built upon its projecting crags. It is composed of mouldering granite, which has broken away in such a manner that the remaining part assumes the form of a tower.

North of Chamisso Island is Hotham Inlet. It is of considerable width, and extends thirty or forty miles in a broad sheet of water, which, at some distance up, was fresh. The entrance of this inlet was so shallow that the barge could not enter. There is a shoal off the entrance, and in the middle of the channel there were