512	ADJACENT TERRITORIES.
a fair view of the harbor for the first time. As a haven of refuge for whalers, traders, and other vessels in these waters, its value cannot be estimated. There is abundance of excellent water, ballast by the million tons, all ready for shipping. Fish, and occasionally tame reindeer meat, can be obtained from the native settlement on the sandspit, where several of them speak fair English. Excellent anti-scorbutic grass can also be procured in plenty near the beach.
The middle of the bay is very deep, one hundred and two fathoms, without bottom, being reported. The lower anchorage
Mount Kennicott, Plover Bay.
has rather deep water, except close in ; and in a norther a large vessel would need plenty of chain and good anchors, as the bottom is hard in some spots, and there is a slight liability to drag. The small bays farther in, however, are perfectly protected, and have the best of holding-ground. The end of the sandspit in the lower harbor is in lat. 64° 22' 25", and lon. 173° 30' 32", according to the report of the United States Eclipse Expedition under Professor Asaph Hall, in 1569.
The mountains around the bay, though steep and rugged, are low. I measured several with a mercurial barometer, and named the highest and most prominent Mount Kennicott, after that