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The brig Legal Tender lay close by and reported herself just from S.F. with mail for us, which was brought off at once.

The cutter being cleared away Prof M. & I went on shore to visit the village while Lt. Myrick took a set of observations for the magnetic dip & intensity. Landing among a lot of rough blocks of ice grounded here all along shore Prof M. & I with an interpreter made our way across a wide stretch of shingle lying in successive [[strikethrough]] layers [[/strikethrough]] ridges. Raching [[reaching]] back half the width of the Spit and which extends from Cape Smyth to this extremity. Four vessels lay at anchor here and 2 could be seen a few miles to the NE. The coast from a little above Icy Cape up to Cape Smyth is elevated from 30 to 70 feet in an almost continuous alluvial bluff which, sodded [[strikethrough]] onl [[/strikethrough]] on top, stretches back to the low marshy ground which is everywhere in the interior. Scattered all along the base of this bluff we saw [[strikethrough]] scattering [[/strikethrough]] pieces of drift wood but not enough to be counted on for fuel for a party wintering here. From Cape Smyth the elevated land facing the coast to the S. descends to an elevation of 10 to 15 ft. above summer high water and is reduced to about a half mile in width all the way from Cape S. to Pt. Barrow (a distance of about 8 miles). This narrow stretch