the westernmost of the same group; and on the 28th of June, we find her entering the harbour of Petropaulski, in Kamschatka, after having traversed nearly 700 miles in so thick a fog that it was scarcely possible to see fifty yards from the vessel.
Commander Beechey’s object was now to make the best of his way to Chamisso Island, in Kotzebue Sound, as there were but three weeks left before the appointed time of rendezvous there; and accordingly every effort was directed toAvards that end.
“With the summer characteristics of this latitude – fine weather and a thick fog – we advanced,” says he, “to the northward, attended by a great many birds, nearly all the same kind as those which inhabit the Greenland Sea. In lat. 60° 47' N. we noticed a change in the colour of the water, and on sounding found 54 fathoms. From that time until we took our departure from this sea, the bottom was always within reach of our common lines. The water shoaled so gradually, that on the 16th, after having run 150 miles, we had 31 fathoms. Here the ground changed from mud to sand, and apprized us of our approach to St. Lawrence Island, which on the following morning, was so close to us that we could hear the surf upon the rocks. The fog was at the same time so thick that we could not see the shore; and it was not until some time afterwards, when we had neared the land by means of a long ground swell, for it was then quite calm, that we discovered the tops of the hills. On the 19th we saw King’s Island, which, though small, is high and rugged, and has low land at its bate, with apparently breakers off the south extreme. We had now advanced sufficiently far to the northward, to carry on our operations at midnight; an advantage in the navigation of an unfrequented sea which often precludes the necessity of lying to.
“It was on one of those beautiful still nights, well known to all who have visited the arctic regions, when the sky is without a cloud, and when the midnight sun, scarcely his own diameter below the horizon, tinges with a bright hue all the northern circle – when the ship, propelled by an increasing breeze, glides rapidly along a smooth sea, startling from her path flocks of lummes and dovekies, and other aquatic birds, whose flight may, from the stillness of the night, be traced by the ear to a considerable distance – that we approached the strait which separates the two great continents, not a little anxious that the fog, the almost certain
