378 cook's voyage to june, 



commonly found in other northern oceans ; such as 

 gulls, shags, puffins, sheerwaters, and sometimes 

 ducks, geese, and swans. And seldom a day passed 

 without seeing seals, whales, and other large fish. 



In the afternoon, we got a light hreeze of wind 

 southerly, which enabled us to steer west for the 

 channel that appeared between the islands and the 

 continent ; and at day-break next morning, we were 

 at no great distance from it, and found several other 

 islands within those already seen by us, of various 

 extent, both in height and circuit. But between these 

 last islands and those before seen, there seemed to be 

 a clear channel, for which I steered, being afraid to 

 keep the coast of the continent aboard, lest we should 

 mistake some point of it for an island, and by that 

 means be drawn into some inlet, and lose the advan- 

 tage of the fair wind which at this time blew. 



I therefore kept along the southernmost chain of 

 islands ; and at noon we were in the latitude of 55 18', 

 and in the narrowest part of the channel, formed by 

 them and those which lie along the continent, where 

 it is about a league and a half or two leagues over. 

 The largest island in this group was now on our left, 

 and is distinguished by the name of Kodiak *, ac- 

 cording to the information we afterward received. I 

 left the rest of them without names. I believe them 

 to be the same that Beering calls Schumagin's 

 Islands f ; or those islands which he called by that 

 name, to be a part of them ; for this group is pretty 

 extensive. We saw islands as far to the southward 

 as an island could be seen. They commence in the 

 longitude of 2(j() 15' E., and extend a degree and 

 a half, or two degrees, to the westward. I cannot be 

 particular ; as we could not distinguish all the islands 

 from the coast of the continent. Most of these 



* See an account of Kodiak, in Sttchlin's New Northern Archi- 

 pelago, p. 30. 39. 



f See Muller's Decouvertes des Russes, p. 262. 277. 



