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or spit separates the water of the ocean on the west from Elson Bay on the East and is made up entirely of pebbly shingle gradually rising in successive small ridges or benches from W. to E. for at least half the width of the spit and these mark the position of the ice and water in spring before the ice leaves shore according to the natives I questioned.  Following this belt comes a narrower one sparsely covered with dwarfed vegetation and a thin sandy soil mixed with the gravel and shingle.

This [[strikethrough]] side [[/strikethrough]] flat is only 3 to 5 ft above spring high water and is limited on its Eastern border by the sandy & pebbly beach of Elson Bay. The native village occupies the highest part of the spit which is its Northern extremity. Pools of stagnant water were quite numerous wherever the ground offered [[strikethrough]] a [/strikethrough]] suitable places.

Very little drift wood was seen along this spit, far less than to the S. of Cape Smyth. We reached the village about 8 PM and I tried to secure a photograph of the village in the [[strikethrough]] of [[/strikethrough]] obscure light. The winter houses are built of whale rib or jawbone and drift wood frames covered with earth & turf on top which is bright green. Their food or meat caches are built much in the same way & of the same material except that in the latter the entrance is through a kind of trap in the top while the former have 

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