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Note Aug.12.

As we were leaving Wrangel Land I saw two small seals come up a number of times close alongside the vessel Both were smaller than or at most not larger than the smallest species of nerpa at W. Michaels - their heads appeared entirely of a dusky chestnut color joined in a well defined line of demarcation by the silvery gray of the neck- The chestnut reached to the base of skull- Capt. Hoopins tells me that he saw others of this same seal last year when cruising along the ice in this vicinity-


Landing on Wrangel Land
August 12
In the early morning the fog lifted a trifle and we stood back into the ice for the shore - We found the ice had opened still nearer toward shore so that we only had about a couple of miles to steam through - The bare hills began to show faintly through the lifting fog & the jagged faces of the cliffs stood out distinctly as we began pushing our way among the loose ice and right before us a small river could be seen flowing down a small cut between the rounded hills & emptying into the [[strikethrough]]far[[/strikethrough]] sea - As we thumped & crowded our way in through the ice Munes & Guillemots & a few Kittiwakes were seen but no other signs of life - The ice became so dense near shore that the propeller began grinding &

Transcription Notes:
few words that are difficult to transcribe