Mr. MILLER, the president of the Alaska Commercial Company.

"The following is an epitome of the information we have
received regarding the subject of your inquiry.

"The bark _Massachusetts_, Captain O. WILLIAMS, was in 74 deg.
30' N.L. and 173 deg. W.L. on the 21st Sept.
1807. No ice in sight in the north, but to the east saw
ice. Saw high peaks bearing W.N.W. about 60'. Captain
Williams is of opinion that Plover Island, so-called by
Kellet, is a headland of Wrangel Land. Captain Williams
says that he is of opinion from his observations, that
usually after the middle of August there is no ice south
of 70 deg.--west of 175 deg., until the 1st of
October. There is hardly a year but that you could go as
far as Cape North (Irkaipij), which is 180 deg., during
the month of September. If the winds through July and
August have prevailed from the S.W., as is usual, the
north shore will be found clear of ice. The season of 1877
was regarded as an 'icy season,' a good deal of ice to
southward. 1876 was an open season; as was 1875. Our
captain, GUSTAV NIEBAUM, states that the east side of
Behring's Straits is open till November; he passed through
the Straits as late as October 22nd two different seasons.
The north shore was clear of all danger within reasonable
distance. In 1869 the bark _Navy_ anchored under
Kolyutschin Island from the 8th to the 10th October. On
the 10th October of that year there was no ice south and
east of Wrangel Land."

These accounts show that I indeed might have reason to be uneasy at
my ill luck in again losing some days at a place at whose bare
coast, exposed to the winds of the Polar Sea, there was little of
scientific interest to employ ourselves with, little at least in
comparison with what one could do in a few days, for instance, at
the islands in Behring's Straits or in St. Lawrence Bay, lying as it
does south of the easternmost promontory of Asia and therefore
sheltered from the winds of the Arctic Ocean, but that there were no
grounds for fearing that it would be necessary to winter there. I
also thought that I could come to the same conclusion from the
experience gained in my wintering on Spitzbergen in 1872-73, when
permanent ice was first formed in our haven, in the 80th degree of
latitude, during the month of February. Now, however, the case was
quite different. The fragile ice-sh