1827. 



PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 293 



rounded to for daylight. It was, however, of little chap. 



consequence, as the weather was so foggy the next v 



day that we could not see far around us. As we ap- Oct. 

 proached the island, flocks of alca crestatella and of 

 eider and king ducks, and several species of phalaropes, 

 flew about us, but no land was distinguished. About 

 noon the water shoaling gradually to eleven fathoms, 

 created a doubt whether we were not running upon 

 the island ; but on altering the course to the east- 

 ward, it deepened again, and by the observations of 

 the next day it appeared that the ship had passed over 

 a shoal lying between St. Lawrence Island and the 

 main. It is a curious fact, that this shoal is precisely 

 in the situation assigned to a small island which Cap- 

 tain Cook named after his surgeon, Mr. Anderson ; 

 and as that island has never been seen since, many 

 persons, relying upon the general accuracy of that 

 great navigator, might suppose the island to have been 

 sunk by some such convulsion as raised the island of 

 Amnuk in the same sea; while others might take oc- 

 casion from this fact to impeach the judgment of 

 Cook. I am happy to have an opportunity of recon- 

 ciling opinions on this subject, having discovered a 

 note by Captain Bligh, who was the master with Cap- 

 tain Cook, written in pencil on the margin of the 

 Admiralty copy of Cook's third voyage, by which it 

 is evident that the compilers of the chart have over- 

 looked certain data collected off the eastern end of St. 

 Lawrence Island, on the return of the expedition from 

 Norton Sound, and that the land, named Anderson's 

 Island, was the eastern end of the island of St. Law- 

 rence ; and had Cook's life been spared he would 

 no doubt have made the necessary correction in his 

 chart. 



