The _Discovery_, under the immediate command of Vancouver, and the _Chatham_, in charge of Peter Puget, cruised eastward along the southern coast of Alaska in 1794. The _Discovery_ passed the entrance to Yakutat bay without stopping, but the _Chatham_ anchored there, and important surveys were carried on under Puget's directions. On June 28, the _Discovery_ was in the vicinity of Icy bay, where the shore of the ocean seemed to be composed of solid ice. Eastward from Icy bay the coast is described as "bordered by lowlands rising with a gradual and uniform ascent to the foot-hills of lofty mountains, whose summits are but the base from which Mount St. Elias towers magnificently into the regions of {67} perpetual frost." A low projecting point on the western side of the entrance to Yakutat bay was named "Point Manby." The coast beyond this toward the northeast became less wooded, and seemed to produce only a brownish vegetation, which farther eastward entirely disappeared. The country was then bare and composed of loose stones. The narrative contains an interesting account of the grand coast scenery from St. Elias to the eastern end of the Fairweather range; but this does not at present claim attention. While the _Chatham_ continued her cruise eastward, Puget ascended Yakutat bay nearly to its head, and also navigated some of the channels between the islands along its eastern shore. A cape on the eastern side, where the bay penetrates the first range of foot-hills, was named "Point Latouche;" but the same landmark had previously been designated "Pa. de la Esperanza" by Malaspina. The bay at the head of the inlet, which Malaspina had named "Desangaño," was named "Digges sound," after one of the officers of the _Chatham_. Boats were sent to explore this inlet, but found it "closed from side to side by a firm, compact body of ice, beyond which, to the back of the ice, a small inlet appeared to extend N. 55° E. about a league."[12] [Footnote 12: Vancouver's Voyage, vol. 5, p. 389.] These observations confirm those made by Malaspina and indicated on the chart reproduced on plate 7, where the ice front is represented as reaching as far south as Haenke island. [Illustration: PLATE 7. MAP OF DISENCHANTMENT BAY, AFTER MALASPINA.]