294 VOYAGE TO THE 



CHAP. Thick weather continued until the 10th, when, 



VII. . . 



,_.^.^ after some hard showers of snow, it dispersed, and 



^^^- afforded us an opportunity of determining the position 

 of the ship, by observation, which agreed very nearly 

 with the reckoning, and showed there had been no 

 current of consequence. Two days afterwards we saw 

 the island of St. Paul, and endeavoured to close it, in 

 order to examine its outline, and compare our obser- 

 vations with those of the preceding year ; but the 

 wind obli2;ed us to pass at the distance of eight miles 

 to the eastward, and we could only accomplish the 

 latter. The next morning we passed to the eastward 

 of St. George's Island, and fixed its position also. 

 This was the island we were anxious to see the preced- 

 ing year, as its situation upon our chart was very un- 

 certain, and in some of the most approved charts it is 

 omitted altogether. 



Off here we observed a number of shags, a few 

 albatrosses, flocks of ortolans, and a sea otter. 



At daylight on the 14th, we saw the Aleutian 

 Islands, and steered for an opening which by our 

 reckoning: should have been the same strait throuijh 

 which we passed on a former occasion ; but the 

 islands being covered more than half w^ay down with 

 a dense fog, we were unable to ascertain our position 

 correctly ; and it was not until the latitude was deter- 

 mined by observation that we discovered we were 

 steering for the wrong passage. This mistake was 

 occasioned by a current S. 34" W. true, at the rate of 

 nearly three miles an hour, which in the last twelve 

 hours had drifted the ship thirty-five miles to the 

 westward of her expected position. Fortunately the 

 wind was fair, and enabled us to correct our error by 

 carrying a press of sail. Before sunset we got sight 



