I have before mentioned, that Major Behm had resigned the command of Kamtschatka, and intended to set out in a short time for Petersburg; and he now offered to charge himself with any despatches we might trust to his care. This was an opportunity not to be neglected; and accordingly Captain Clerke acquainted him, that he would take the liberty of sending by him some papers relating to our voyage, to be delivered to our ambassador at the Russian court. Our first intentions were to send only a small journal of our proceedings; but afterward Captain Clerke being persuaded that the whole account of our discoveries might safely be trusted to a person who had given such striking proofs both of his public and private virtues; and considering that we had a very hazardous part of the voyage still to undertake, determined to send, by him, the whole of the journal of our late commander, with that part of his own which completed the period from Captain Cook's death, till our arrival at Kamtschatka; together with a chart of all our discoveries. Mr. Bayly and myself thought it also proper to send a general account of our proceedings to the board of longitude; by which precautions, if any misfortune had afterward befallen us, the Admiralty would have been in possession of a complete history of the principal facts of our voyage. It was also determined, that a smaller packet should be sent by an express from Okotsk, which, the major said, if he was fortunate in his passage to that port, would reach Petersburg by December, and that he himself should be there in February or March. During the three following days, the major was entertained alternately in the two ships, in the best manner we were able. On the 25th, he took his leave, and was saluted with thirteen guns; and the sailors, at their own desire, gave him three cheers. The next morning, Mr. Webber and myself attended him a few miles up the Awatska River, where we met the Russian priest, his wife and children, who were waiting to take the last farewell of their commander.

It was hard to say, whether the good priest and his family, or ourselves, were most affected on taking our leave of Major Behm. Short as our acquaintance had been, his noble and disinterested conduct had inspired us with the highest respect and esteem for him; and we could not part with a person to whom we were under such obligations, and whom we had little prospect of ever seeing again, without feeling the most tender concern. The intrinsic value of the private presents we received from him, exclusive of the stores which might be carried to a public account, must have amounted, according to the current price of articles in that country, to upward of two hundred pounds. But this generosity, extraordinary as it must appear in itself, was exceeded by the delicacy with which all his favours were conferred, and the artful manner in which he endeavoured to prevent our feeling the weight of obligations, which he knew we had no means of requiting. If we go a step further, and consider him as supporting a public character, and maintaining the honour of a great sovereign, we shall find a still higher subject of admiration, in the just and enlarged sentiments by which he was actuated. "The service in which you are employed," he would often say, "is for the general advantage of mankind, and therefore gives you a right, not merely to the offices of humanity, but to the privileges of citizens, in whatever country you may be thrown. I am sure I am acting agreeably to the wishes of my mistress, in affording you all the relief in our power; and I cannot forget either her character, or my own honour, so much, as to barter for the performance of a duty." At other times, he would tell us, that he was particularly desirous of setting a good example to the Kamtschadales, who, he said, were but just emerging from a state of barbarism; that they looked up to the Russians as their patterns in everything; and that he had hopes they might in future look upon it as a duty incumbent upon them to assist strangers to the utmost of their power, and believe that such was the universal practice of civilised nations. To all this must be added, that, after having relieved, to the utmost of his abilities, all our present distresses, he showed himself not much less mindful of our future wants; and, as he supposed it more than probable we should not discover the passage we were in search of, and therefore should return to Kamtschatka in the fall of the year, he made Captain Clerke give him a list of what cordage and flour we should want, and promised they should be sent from Okotsk, and wait our arrival. For the same purpose, he gave Captain Clerke a paper, enjoining all the subjects of the empress, whom we might happen to meet, to give us every assistance in their power.

CHAPTER III.-CONTINUATION OF TRANSACTIONS IN THE HARBOUR OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL. -ABUNDANCE OF FISH.-DEATH OF A SEAMAN BELONGING TO THE RESOLUTION. THE RUSSIAN HOSPITAL PUT UNDER THE CARE OF THE SHIP'S SURGEONS.-SUPPLY OF FLOUR AND CATTLE. CELEBRATION OF THE KING'S BIRTH-DAY.-DIFFICULTIES IN SAILING OUT OF THE BAY. ERUPTION OF A VOLCANO.-STEER TO THE NORTHWARD.-CHEEPOONSKOI NOSS.ERRORS OF THE RUSSIAN CHARTS.-KAMTSCHATSKOI NOSS.-OLUTORSKOI NOSS.-TSCHUKOTSKOI NOSS.-ISLAND OF ST. LAURENCE.-VIEW, FROM THE SAME POINT, OF THE COASTS OF ASIA AND AMERICA, AND THE ISLANDS OF ST. DIOMEDE.-VARIOUS ATTEMPTS TO GET TO THE NORTH, BETWEEN THE TWO CONTINENTS.-OBSTRUCTED BY IMPENETRABLE ICE.-SEA-HORSES AND WHITE BEARS KILLED.—CAPTAIN CLERKE'S DETERMINATION, and future designs. HAVING Concluded the last chapter with an account of our return from Bolcheretsk, accompanied by Major Behm, the Commander of Kamtschatka, and of his departure; I shall proceed to relate the transactions that passed in the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul during our absence. On the 7th of May, soon after we had left the bay, a large piece of ice drove across the cut-water of the Resolution, and brought home the small bower anchor. This obliged them to weigh the other anchor, and moor again. The carpenters, who were employed in stopping the leak, were obliged to take off a great part of the sheathing from the bows, and found many of the trunnels so very loose and rotten, as to be easily drawn out with the fingers. On the 11th they had heavy gales from the north-east, which obliged both the ships to strike yards and topmasts; but in the afternoon, the weather being more moderate, and the ice having drifted away as far as the mouth of the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul, they warped close to the shore for the greater convenience of watering and wooding, and again moored as before, the town bearing north half west, half a mile distant, and the mouth of the bay shut in by the southernmost point of Rakowina harbour, south. The next day, a party was sent on shore to cut wood, but made little progress on account of the snow, which still covered the ground. A convenient spot was cleared away abreast of the ships, where there was a fine run of water, and a tent being erected for the cooper, the empty casks were landed, and the sail-makers sent on shore.

On the 15th, the beach being clear of ice, the people were sent to haul the seine, and caught an abundant supply of fine flat fish for both the ships' companies. Indeed from this time, during the whole of our stay in the harbour, we were absolutely overpowered with the quantities of fish which came in from every quarter. The Toions both of this town and of Paratounca, a village in the neighbourhood, had received orders from Major Behm to employ all the Kamtschadales in our service, so that we frequently could not take into the ships the presents that were sent us. They consisted in general of flat fish, cod, trout, and herring. These last, which were in their full perfection, and of a delicious flavour, were exceedingly abundant in this bay. The Discovery's people surrounded at one time so great a quantity in their seine, that they were obliged to throw a vast number out, lest the net should be broken to pieces; and the cargo they landed was afterward so plentiful, that besides a sufficient store for immediate use, they filled as many casks as they could spare for salting; and after sending to the Resolution a sufficient quantity for the same purpose, they left several bushels behind on the beach.

The snow now began to disappear very rapidly, and abundance of wild garlic, celery, and nettle-tops were gathered for the use of the crews, which being boiled with wheat and portable soup, made them a wholesome and comfortable breakfast, and with this they were supplied every morning. The birch trees were also tapped, and the sweet juice, which they yielded in great quantities, was constantly mixed with the men's allowance of brandy. The next day, a small bullock, which had been procured for the ships' companies by the sergeant, was killed, and weighed two hundred and seventy-two pounds. It was served out to both crews for their Sunday's dinner, being the first piece of fresh beef they had tasted since our departure from the Cape of Good Hope in December, 1776, a period of near two years and a half.

This evening died John Macintosh, the carpenter's mate, after having laboured under a dysentery ever since our departure from the Sandwich Islands: he was a very hard-working quiet man, and much regretted by his mess-mates. He was the fourth person we lost by sickness during the voyage, but the first who could be said, from his age and the constitutional habits of his body, to have had on our setting out an equal chance with the rest of his comrades: Watman we supposed to be about sixty years of age; and Roberts and Mr. Anderson, from the decay which had evidently commenced before we left England, could not, in all probability, under any circumstances, have lived a greater length of time than they did.

I have already mentioned that Captain Clerke's health continued daily to decline, notwithstanding the salutary change of diet which the country of Kamtschatka afforded him. The priest of Paratounca, as soon as he heard of the infirm state he was in, supplied him every day with bread, milk, fresh butter, and fowls, though his house was sixteen miles from the harbour where we lay.

On our first arrival, we found the Russian hospital, which is near the town of St. Peter and St. Paul, in a condition truly deplorable. All the soldiers were, more or less, affected by the scurvy, and a great many in the last stage of that disorder. The rest of the Russian inhabitants were also in the same condition; and we particularly remarked that our friend the sergeant, by making too free with the spirits we gave him, had brought on himself in the course of a few days, some of the most alarming symptoms of that malady. In this lamentable state, Captain Clerke put them all under the care of our surgeons, and ordered a supply of sour krout, and malt for wort, to be furnished for their use. It was astonishing to observe the alteration in the figures of almost every person we met on our return from Bolcheretsk ; and I was informed by our surgeons that they attributed their speedy recovery principally to the effects of the sweet wort.

On the 1st of June we got on board two hundred and fifty poods, or nine thousand pounds' weight of rye flour, with which we were supplied from the stores of St. Peter and St. Paul's, and the Discovery had a proportional quantity. The men were immediately put on full allowance of bread, which they had not been indulged in since our leaving the Cape of Good Hope. The same day our watering was completed, having got on board sixty-five tons. On the 4th * we had fresh breezes and hard rain, which disappointed us in our design of dressing the ships, and obliged us to content ourselves with firing twenty-one guns in honour of the day, and celebrating it in other respects in the best manner we were able. Port, who was left with us on account of his skill in languages, behaved himself with so much modesty and discretion, that as soon as his master was gone he was no longer Jean Port, but Monsieur Port, the interpreter, and partook, as well as the sergeant (in his capacity of commander of the place), of the entertainment of the day. Our worthy friend the priest of Paratounca having got intelligence of its being our king's birth-day, gave also a sumptuous feast, at which some of our gentlemen were present, who seemed highly delighted with their entertainment, which consisted of abundance of good eating and drinking, together with dancing.

On the 6th, twenty head of cattle were sent us by the commander's orders from the Verchnei ostrog, which is situated on the river Kamtschatka, at the distance of near a hundred miles from this place, in a direct line. They were of a moderate size; and notwithstanding the Kamtschadales had been seventeen days in driving them down to the harbour, arrived in good condition. The four following days were employed in making ready for sea, and on the 11th, at two in the morning, we began to unmoor; but before we had got one anchor up, it blew so strong a gale from the north-east, that we kept fast, and moored again, conjecturing, from the position of the entrance of the bay, that the current of wind would set up the channel. Accordingly, the pinnace being sent out to examine the passage, returned with an account that the wind blew strong from the south-east, with a great swell, setting into the bay, which would have made any attempt to get to sea very hazardous.

Our friend Port now took his leave of us, and carried with him the box with our journals, which was to go by the major, and the packet that was to be sent express. On the 12th,

The Birth-day of George III.

the weather being moderate, we began to unmoor again; but, after breaking the messenger, and reeving a running purchase with a six-inch hawser, which also broke three times, we were obliged at last to heave a strain at low water, and wait for the flowing of the tide to raise the anchor. This project succeeded; but not without damaging the cable in the wake of the hawse. At three, we weighed the best bower, and set sail; and, at eight, having little wind, and the tide making against us, we dropped anchor again in ten fathoms, off the mouth of Rakowina harbour; the ostrog bearing north by east half east, two miles and a half distant; the Needle Rocks, on the east side of the passage, south south-east half east, and the high rock, on the west side of the passage, south.

On the 13th, at four in the morning, we got under weigh with the ebb tide; and, there being a dead calm, the boats were sent ahead to tow the ships. At ten, the wind springing up from the south-east by south, and the tide having turned, we were again obliged to drop anchor in seven fathoms; the Three Needle Rocks bearing south half cast; and the ostrog north half east, at the distance of one mile from the nearest land. After dinner, I went with Captain Gore on shore, on the east side of the passage, where we saw, in two different places, the remains of extensive villages; and on the side of the hill, an old ruined parapet, with four or five embrasures. It commanded the passage up the mouth of the bay; and in Beering's time, as he himself mentions, had guns mounted on it. Near this place, were the ruins of some caverns under ground, which we supposed to have been magazines.

At six in the afternoon we weighed with the ebb tide, and turned to windward; but at eight, a thick fog arising, we were obliged to bring-to, as our soundings could not afford us a sufficient direction for steering between several sunk rocks, which lie on each side of the passage we had to make. In the morning of the 14th, the fog clearing away, we weighed as soon as the tide began to ebb; and, having little wind, sent the boats ahead to tow; but, at ten o'clock, both the wind and tide set in so strong from the sea, that we were again obliged to drop anchor in thirteen fathoms, the high rock bearing west one quarter south, distant three quarters of a mile. We remained fast for the rest of the day, the wind blowing fresh into the mouth of the bay; and, toward evening, the weather had a very unusual appearance, being exceedingly dark and cloudy, with an unsettled shifting wind.

Before daylight on the 15th, we were surprised with a rumbling noise, resembling distant hollow thunder; and when the day broke, we found the decks and sides of the ships covered with a fine dust like emery, near an inch thick. The air, at the same time, continued loaded and darkened with this substance; and, toward the volcano mountain, situated to the north of the harbour, it was so thick and black, that we could not distinguish the body of the hill. About twelve o'clock, and, during the afternoon, the explosions became louder, and were followed by showers of cinders, which were, in general, about the size of peas; though many were picked up from the deck larger than a hazel-nut. Along with the cinders fell several small stones, which had undergone no change from the action of fire. In the evening we had dreadful thunder and lightning, which, with the darkness of the atmosphere, and the sulphureous smell of the air, produced altogether a most awful and terrifying effect. We were, at this time, about eight leagues from the foot of the mountain.

On the 16th, at daylight, we again weighed anchor, and stood out of the bay; but the ebb-tide setting across the passage upon the eastern shore, and the wind falling, we were driven very near the Three Needle Rocks, which lie on that side of the entrance, and obliged to hoist out the boats, in order to tow the ships clear of them. At noon we were two leagues from the land, and had soundings with forty-three fathoms of line, over a bottom of small stones, of the same kind with those which fell on our decks, after the eruption of the volcano; but whether they had been left there by the last, or by some former eruptions, we were not able to determine. The aspect of the country was now very different from what it had been on our first arrival. The snow, excepting what remained on the tops of some very high mountains, had disappeared; and the sides of the hills, which in many parts were well wooded, were covered with a beautiful verdure.

As it was Captain Clerke's intention to keep as much in sight of the coast of Kamtschatka as the weather would permit, in order to determine its position, we continued steering to the north north-east, with light and variable winds, till the 18th. The volcano was still seen

throwing up immense volumes of smoke; and we had no soundings with one hundred and fifty fathoms, at the distance of four leagues from the shore. On the 18th, the wind freshening from the south, the weather became so thick and hazy, as to make it imprudent to attempt any longer to keep in sight of the land. But that we might be ready to resume our survey, whenever the fogs should disperse, we ran on in the direction of the coast, as laid down in the Russian charts, and fired signal-guns for the Discovery to steer the same course. At eleven o'clock, just before we lost sight of the land, Cheepoonskoi Noss, so called by the Russians (a description of which, as well as the coast between it and Awatska Bay, will be given hereafter,) bore north north-east, distant seven or eight leagues.

On the 20th, at three in the morning, the weather having cleared up, we stood in toward the land; and in an hour's time saw it ahead, extending from north-west to north northeast, distant about five leagues. The north part we took to be Kronotskoi Noss; its position in the Russian charts agreeing nearly with our reckoning as to its latitude, which was 54° 42'; but in longitude we differed from them considerably, they placing it 1° 48′ E. of Awatska; whereas, our reckoning, corrected by the time-keepers and lunar observations, makes it 3° 34′ E. of that place, or 162° 17′ E. from Greenwich. The land about this cape is very high, and the inland mountains were still covered with snow. The shore breaks off in steep cliffs, and the coast is without any appearance of inlets or bays. We had not been long gratified with this sight of the land, when the wind freshened from the south-west, and brought on a thick fog, which obliged us to stand off to the north-east by east. The weather clearing up again at noon, we steered toward the land, expecting to fall in with Kamtschatskoi Noss, and had sight of it at daybreak of the 21st. The southerly wind was soon after succeeded by a light breeze blowing off the land, which prevented our approaching the coast sufficiently near to describe its aspect, or ascertain, with accuracy, its direction. At noon, our latitude, by observation, was 55° 52′, and longitude (deduced from a comparison of many lunar observations, taken near this time, with the time-keepers,) 163° 50′; the extremities of the land bearing N. W. by W. three quarters W., and N. by W. three quarters W., the nearest part about eight leagues distant. At nine o'clock in the evening, having approached about two leagues nearer the coast, we found it formed a projecting peninsula, extending about twelve leagues in a direction nearly N. and S. It is level and of a moderate height, the southern extremity terminating in a low sloping point; that to the north forming a steep bluff head; and between them, about four leagues to the southward of the northern cape, there is a considerable break in the land. On each side of this break the land is quite low; beyond the opening rises a remarkable saddle-like hill; and a chain of high mountains covered with snow, ranges along the back of the whole peninsula. As the coast runs in an even direction, we were at a great loss where to place Kamtschatskoi Noss, which, according to Muller, forms a projecting point about the middle of the peninsula, and which certainly does not exist; but I have since found, that in the general map published by the Academy of Petersburg in 1776, that name is given to the southern cape. This was found, by several accurate observations, to be in latitude 56° 3′, longitude 163° 20′; the difference in longitude from the Russian charts, being the same as at Kronotskoi Noss. The variation of the compass at this time was 10° E. To the southward of this peninsula the great river Kamtschatka falls into the sea. As the season was too far advanced to admit of our making an accurate survey of the coast of Kamtschatka, it was Captain Clerke's plan, in our run to Beering's Straits, to determine principally the positions of the projecting points of the coast. We therefore directed our course across an extensive bay, laid down between Kamtschatskoi Noss and Olutorskoi Noss, intending to make the latter; which, according to the Russian geographers, terminates the peninsula called Kamtschatka, and becomes the southern boundary of the Koriaki country.

On the 22nd, we passed a dead whale, which emitted a horrid stench, perceivable at upward of a league's distance; it was covered with a great number of sea-birds, that were feasting on it. On the 24th, the wind, which had varied round the compass, the three preceding days, fixed at S. W. and brought clear weather, with which we continued our course to the N. E. by N., across the bay, without any land in sight. This day we saw a great number of gulls, and were witnesses to the disgusting mode of feeding of the arctic